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THE PRIVATE SOLDIER 
UNDER WASHINGTON 



BY 

CHARLES KNOWLES BOLTON 



ILLUSTRATED 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
NEW YORK::::::::::::::::::1902 



THE LI8RARY.OF 

CONGRESS, 
Two Copied Recsived 

OCT. 1 1902 

COPVBIOHT ENTPV 

C» AS8 «- XXa No. 

corY B. 



Copyright, 1902, by 
CHAKLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

Published, September, 1902 



^' 



TROW DIRECTORr 

PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 

NEW YORK 



i 



TO MY WIFE 

(£tl)cl StantoooU Bolton 



PREFACE 

MUCH has been written about the Ameri- 
can Revolution, but our knowledge of 
the private soldiers of the patriot army 
is confined chiefly to Washington's description of 
their sufferings at Valley Forge. Their story is 
to be found in a line here and there scattered 
through the mass of contemporary literature. In 
sifting this material, it has seemed best to give 
in every case the name of the authority who saw 
what he described. No student, however, would 
willingly forget the labors of those later writers 
who have done so much to make easier the way 
for others. 

I record with pleasure my obligation to Pro- 
fessor Edward Channing, of Harvard College, for 
very many valuable suggestions ; and also to Mr. 
Albert Matthews, whose knowledge of the lan- 
guage and customs of the period has been of 

great service to me. 

C. K. B. 

Pound Hill, Shirley, 
Massachusetts, July, 1902. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



I. The Origin of the Army ... 3 

II. Maintaining the Forces .... 44 

III. Material Needs 73 

IV. Firelock and Powder 105 

V. Officer and Private 125 

VI. Camp Duties 143 

VII. Camp Diversions 163 

VIII. Hospitals and Prison-Ships . . .177 

IX. The Army in Motion 194 

X. The Private Himself 219 

INDEX 249 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



FACING 
PAGE 



How the news was carried. An express from New 

England i6 

From the Gerard Bancker collection of broadsides. 

Punishment of a soldier zo 

Page from Washington's order book, July 3, 1775. 

An enlistment blank of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 

1776 

An enlistment blank of 1776 30 

A very rare broadside, inviting enlistment under Paul 

Jones, 1777 46 

Original owned by the Essex Institute, Salem. 

Resolution of Congress to enlist 88 battalions .... 48 

Orders relating to private soldiers 50 

Page from Washington's order book, Nov. 9, 1776. 

Paper currency, 1776, 1778 60 

Enlistment broadside 66 

Original owned by the Boston Public Library. 

Facsimile (reduced) of a call for grain for the army at 

Valley Forge 84 

Original owned by the Pennsylvania Historical Society, 
[xi] 



Illustrations 



Call for food and blankets, June i 8, 1775 

Original owned by the Boston Public Library. 

Handbill sent among the British troops on Bunker Hill 90 
Original owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society. 

Call for coats, showing a sample of the fawn-colored felt 
cloth desired. These broadsides are rarely found with 
the cloth still attached 96 

Original owned by the Boston Public Library. 

Flint-lock guns, wooden canteen, and welded bayonet 
which were used by privates during the Revolution. 
The barrel of the lower gun has been shortened . .106 

Originals owned by James E. Kelly. 

Plate taken from <' Regulations for the order and Discipline 
of the troops of the United States" by Baron de 
Steuben 1 10 

Musket, powder-horn, bullet flask, and buck-shot pouch 
carried in the Revolution 

Lent to the Bostonian Society by George B. Dexter, Esq. 

Drum carried at the battle of Bunker Hill . . . .120 

Probably a Massachusetts flag ; after an old print. The 
flag of Massachusetts ; a white ground with a pine 
tree in the centre. Flag carried by the Bedford mil- 
itia company at Concord bridge. Flag carried by the 
American army through the South at the beginning of 
the Revolution. First naval flag ; a yellow flag 
with a rattlesnake in the act of striking . . . .140 

[ -' ] 



Illustrations 



FACING 
FACE 



Hunting shirt (made from a model of the Revolutionary 
period) of home-spun linen 

Vest made from a model of that period showing lacing 

in back instead of a buckle i6o 

Originals owned by James E. Kelly. 

Company receipt for pay showing the ability of the private 

to write i68 

Original owned by the Boston Public Library. 

Receipt signed by the Ipswich minute men who marched 

on the alarm of April 19, 1775 172 

Original in the Emmet collection in the Lenox Library, New 
York. 

Surgeon's saw used by Dr. David Jones, who had been a 
student under Dr. Joseph Warren 

Teeth extractors 

Owned by the Bostonian Society. 

Flask 

Owned by Mrs. R. W. Redman. 

Revolutionary bullet moulds 178 

Celebration of New Year's Day 236 

Page from Washington's order book, Jan. i, 1778. 

Gray cartridge paper with cartridges and ball, found in the 
attic of the church at Shirley Centre, Mass., by J. E. 
L. Hazen ; also bullet mould and melting pot . . . 242 



[ X'" ] 



/ 



The Private Soldier Under 
Washington 



The Origin of the Army 

WHEN the colonists in America rose in 
rebellion against the English Govern- 
ment in 1775, they occupied scarcely- 
more territory than had been won from the wil- 
derness a century earlier. Pioneers from the 
shores of the North Sea had crossed the Atlantic 
to make for themselves homes ; the more vent- 
uresome had forced their way to the head-waters 
of the coast rivers to build block-houses for trade 
and defence. Little by little they and their de- 
scendants cut away the timber along the banks of 
many pleasant streams and planted grain. And 
now, at the southward, their lands reached from 
the ocean to the Appalachian range — the water- 
shed of the Potomac, the James, the Roanoke, 
the Santee, the Savannah and the Altamaha 
rivers. Farther north they cleared and tilled the 
country which is drained by the Susquehanna, 
the Hudson, the Connecticut, the Kennebec, and 
the Penobscot. 

[ 3 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Here was a theatre of war with great possibih- 
ties for the strategist who knew the topography 
thoroughly, and could marshal the rivers and hills 
like forces in reserve to checkmate his antagonist. 
Throughout Washington's campaigns near New 
York the Hudson River on the east and the Dela- 
ware on the west served to keep the British in 
check. The manoeuvres of Gates and Greene in 
the Carolinas were everywhere influenced by the 
broad streams that cross the country. But rivers 
were dangerous allies, and when made part of a 
great plan might, by the fortunes of war, prove 
ruinous to an army. In the campaign of 1777 
Burgoyne was to gain control of the Hudson in 
order to separate the men of New England from 
their brothers in rebellion ; but he accepted a po- 
sition within the bend of the river at Saratoga 
and was compelled to surrender. In the expedi- 
tion of Cornwallis in 1781 the converging streams 
of the York and the James, which were to pro- 
tect his army, held him like a trap as soon as the 
French allies came into possession of the sea. 

The political divisions show that England laid 
claim to the eastern part of America, with the 
exception of Florida. Massachusetts still in- 
cluded the territory between the western part of 
Nova Scotia, now called New Brunswick, and 
[ 4 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



New Hampshire, later known as Maine ; and the 
land between the Connecticut River and Lake 
Champlain, afterward the State of Vermont, was 
at this time within the bounds of New York. 
The rich country between the upper Mississippi 
and its tributary the Ohio had but recently been 
added to the Government of Quebec. There 
were few English inhabitants in this region, and 
the French stockades and trading villages, such 
as Detroit, Vincennes on the Wabash, and Kas- 
kaskia, were important only as settlements along 
the water highway from Canada and the Great 
Lakes to New Orleans. The southern English 
colonies already looked westward to the Missis- 
sippi for their expansion. 

Beyond all this region lay the untouched for- 
ests which gathered rains for the far-reaching 
waters of the Rio Grande, the Colorado, the 
Arkansas, and the Missouri — the possessions of 
Spain. 

The English colonies in 1775 had a popula- 
tion of two and a half million people, less than a 
third the number then in Great Britain and Ire- 
land. Moreover, above half a million of these 
people were negroes, barred very generally from 
military service ; many others refused from their 
religious views to bear arms ; and a considerable 
[ 5 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

minority of the citizens — more than a third of the 
men of influence, said Adams — opposed an ap- 
peal to force. It was fortunate for America that 
the war began in New England, which had few 
Tories and slaves, and was able, by furnishing a 
large part of the patriot army, to show a strong 
front to the enemy. 

Earlier in the century there had been little to 
draw together the various races then settled upon 
the continent, isolated as they were by religious 
differences, social distinctions, and the imperfect 
means of travel. But a steady policy of irritation 
and repression on the part of the English Govern- 
ment quickened the sympathies of the people, 
and led to the perfection of intercommunica- 
tion and to the dissemination of political ideas. 
The arbitrary restriction of trade and abrogation 
of privileges by an unseen power 3,000 miles 
away aroused the colonies to a sense of their 
common danger. 

The presence of an English garrison at Boston, 
and the enforcement of acts designed by Parlia- 
ment to crush out the revolutionary spirit in 
Massachusetts, made the colony a centre of the 
coming storm. The members of a convention of 
delegates from the towns and districts in Suffolk 
County, meeting in September, 1774, declared in 

[ 6 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



language vigorous, if a little florid, that to arrest 
the hand about to ransack their pockets, to dis- 
arm the parricide who stood with a dagger at 
their bosoms, and to resist the usurpation of un- 
constitutional power, would roll their reputation 
upon a " torrent of panegyric " , to the abyss of 
eternity.^ With their future fame secured, they 
set about frankly to prepare for the conflict, call- 
ing upon the people to elect their militia offi- 
cers, and acquaint themselves with the art of war, 
that King George might not make an easy prey 
of " a numerous, brave, and hardy people." ^ 
The action taken by several of the towns about 
Boston was if possible more marked. Brookline, 
for example, appointed a committee in Septem- 
ber to examine into the state of the town as to its 
military preparation for war " in case of a suden 
attack from our enemies." ^ 

On October 26, 1774, the Provincial Congress, 
sitting at Cambridge, chose a committee of 
safety with power to collect military stores, and, 
if necessary, to "summon and support the militia. 
With the delegation of this authority to a specific 

^Journals of each Provincial Congress of Massachusetts (Lin- 
coln), pp. 601, 602. 
^Ibid., pp. 603, 604. 
3 Muddy River Records, p. 248. 

[ 7 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

body of leaders, the opposition to Great Britain 
■ceased to be wholly legislative, for the committee 
had the necessary power to maintain armed re- 
bellion. The military measures of this period, 
proposed in convention and carried by vote, in 
time of peace and within three or four miles of 
the British garrison, were a test of New England 
courage and determination that deserve^ recogni- 
tion. 

At the same time a plan of organization for 
the militia was outlined. Field officers were 
ordered to enlist, if possible, a quarter of the 
total number of militiamen for emergency service 
under the direction of the committee of safety; 
these companies were to consist of at least fifty 
minute-men each, and were to elect their own 
company officers.^ Twenty years earlier, alarm- 
list companies had been organized to repel the 
Indians ; they may be considered as survivals of the 
regiments that were in King Philip's time ordered 
to be ready to march at a moment's warning ; and 
these in turn can be traced to the companies 

^Journals Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, p. 33. The 
Continental Congress recommended to the Colonies, July 18, 
1775, to form similar companies of minute-men. The term 
minute-men appears September 21, 1774, in the Journal of 
the Worcester County Convention. (Journals Provincial Con- 
gress, pp. 643, 644.) 

[8] 



The Origin of the Army 



of thirty men from each hundred of the miHtia 
which in 1645 were to be prepared "at halfe an 
howers warning." Thus had the training in arms 
and in preparation against surprise and attack 
been handed down from the days of Myles Stan- 
dish and Simon Willard.^ The committee on 
the state of the province drew up, December 10, 

1774, an address to the people which urged the 
towns and districts to pay their local militia for 
their services, in order to encourage them " to ob- 
tain the skill of complete soldiers." 

These preparations were well known in Boston, 
and Lord Percy, who was for a time in command 
of the British troops there, referred often to them 
in letters to his father ; as early as September 12th 
he said that the rebels " did not make a despica- 
ble appearance as soldiers."^ He knew that 
training-day had ceased to be a perfunctory cere- 
mony. 

The Provincial Congress resolved, on April 8, 

1775, that an army should be raised and estab- 
lished, and other New England colonies should 
be asked to furnish their quotas of men for the 
general defence. The records of the committees 
of safety and supplies show that various stores 

^Green's Groton during the Revolution, p. 3. 

2 Percy to his father, September 12, 1774; ^S- *^ Alnwick. 

[9] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

were being collected at this time, such as spades, 
pick-axes and bill-hooks, iron pots and wooden 
mess-bowls, carpenters' tools, cartridge - paper, 
powder and fuses, grape and round shot, bombs, 
mortars, musket-balls and flints, molasses, salt 
fish, raisins, oatmeal, and flour,^ From the 8th 
of March to the 14th of April, 1775, sundry 
persons under the direction of John Goddard 
were carting through the quiet country roads that 
lead to Concord casks of balls, barrels of linen, 
hogsheads of flints, loads of beef and rice, quan- 
tities of canteens and other articles.^ 

To seize these stores, so specifically enumerated 
in the old thong-bound account-book of wagon- 
master Goddard, Lieutenant - Colonel Francis 
Smith,^ with the flank companies of the Tenth 
Regiment of foot and of several other corps, em- 
barked from Boston, Common at about half-past 
ten o'clock Tuesday night, the 18th of April,^ 
crossed the Charles River, and began the march 

1 Journals Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, p. 505 ^/ seq. 
Records Committee of Safety. 

^Goddard's Account Book; MS. in Brookline Public Li- 
brary. Reprinted in part in Brookline Historical Publication 
Society, Publication No. 15. 

^Cannon's Historical Record of the Tenth Regiment, p. 36. 

■* Gage's account in Journals Provincial Congress of Massa- 
chusetts (Lincoln), p. 679. 

[ 10] 



The Origin of the Army 



which was to bring on the American Revolution. 
He met and dispersed the forewarned minute-men 
on Lexington Green at five o'clock of the morn- 
ing of the 1 9th of April ; he marched on to Con- 
cord, destroyed the stores, and commenced the 
return ; at half past two his men, thoroughly ex- 
hausted from their rapid march back toward Lex- 
ington, lay down within the hollow square formed 
by reenforcements which Lord Percy had led out 
from Boston. 

The retreat of the regulars along the country 
road has often been pictured in words ; the red- 
coats were harassed by the farmers who (to use 
Percy's own phrase) surrounded and followed 
them like a moving circle,^ firing from trees and 
stone walls. A British soldier, apparently in 
" Chatham's division of marines," had his hat shot 
off his head three times, lost his bayonet by a 
ball, and had two holes in his coat,^ as he pushed 
on to Charlestown. Colonel Smith's men from 
the Tenth Regiment wore at this period three- 
cornered cocked hats bound with white lace ; 
scarlet coats faced and turned up with bright yel- 

1 Percy to General Harvey, April 20, 1775; MS. at Aln- 
wick. 

2 Journals Provincial Congress of Massachusetts (Lincoln), 
p. 683. 

[ II ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

low, and ornamented with white lace ; scarlet 
waistcoats and breeches ; white linen gaiters reach- 
ing above the knee ; white cravats, and buff 
belts.-^ They were brave men of many battle- 
fields, and their discomfiture was a sight to stir 
the blood of every man in homespun who reached 
the scene. Each town has its story of that mus- 
ter-morning, of the minute-man who left his 
plough in the furrow, the bucket at the well- 
sweep, or the fodder at the door of the cattle- 
shed. In some towns not above half a dozen 
able-bodied men remained at home through the 
19th of April, and the killed, wounded, or missing 
were credited to twenty-three different towns and 
villages.^ 

The British reached Bunker Hill, across the 
narrow neck which joins Charlestown to the main- 
land, as the dusk began to make visible the flash 
of the muskets. Their pursuers halted while the 
militia officers held a consultation at the foot of 
Prospect Hill ; a guard was formed, sentinels 
were posted as far as the approach to the Neck, 
and patrols were sent out to watch the enemy. 
The militia then withdrew to Cambridge. An- 
other guard went to the Brookline and Roxbury 

1 R. Cannon's Historical Record, p. 35. 

2 Journals Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, p. 678. 

[ 12 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



shores, south of Boston, to cover that territory 
until morning. On the 2oth Cambridge was 
searched for beef, pork, and cooking utensils, 
while Roxbury furnished a good' supply of ship- 
bread for the hungry men. Before noon the 
committee of supplies in Concord had sent word 
that they were using every effort to forward pro- 
visions. Thus were the first difficulties overcome, 
and an armed force began the siege of Boston.^ 

The men who encamped about Boston had 
fought with perseverance and resolution ; ^ they 
were not raw recruits, for many had contended 
in the wars with French and Indians, and their 
names may still be seen on the King's muster- 
rolls.^ They were not a rabble recruited from 
the low ranks from which a city mob is drawn. 
College and professional men did their part. The 
death of a justice of the peace, who was a graduate 
of Harvard and held his commission under the 
Crown, caused a heated discussion in the British 
press ; some said that he was a spectator, for they 
could not believe that the movement was respect- 
able in the character of its supporters.'* General 

1 Heath's Memoirs (1798), pp. 14-16. 

2 Lord Percy's letter, supra. 

^ Massachusetts Archives, Colonial and Revolutionary Rolls. 
''Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, July 4, 1775. 

[ 13 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Howe, writing to Lord Dartmouth a few months 
later, stated half the truth when he said that the 
Continental army contained many European sol- 
diers and most of the young men of spirit in the 
country, who gave diligent attention to the mili- 
tary profession.^ Lord Percy had held that the 
Americans were " a set of sly, artful, hypocritical 
rascals, cruel, and cowards," ^ but after the battle 
of Lexington he declared that the rebels showed 
an enthusiasm and a courage to meet death that 
promised an insurrection not so despicable as was 
imagined in England. Percy was quick to see 
that the Indian method of fighting from behind 
trees and stone walls was proof not of cowardice, 
but of ability to profit by conditions ; and, said 
he, " they know very well what they are about." ^ 
Soon after the events of the 19th, men in 
the companies encamped near Boston were 
asked by the committee of safety to enlist for 
service until the end of the year, or for a shorter 
period at the committee's discretion.^ A vigor- 

1 Howe's letter, January 16, 1776, quoted in Washington's 
Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 353. 

2 Lord Percy to H. Reveley, August 8, 1774; MS. at 
Alnwick. 

^ Lord Percy to Harvey, April 20, 1775. 

^ For the oath see Journals Provincial Congress of Massachu- 
setts (Lincoln), p. 201. 

[14] 



The Origin of the Army 



ous circular letter, dated April 20th, was sent to 
the neighboring towns urging the enlistment of 
an army to defend wives and children " from the 
butchering hands of an inhuman soldiery " ; and 
on the 2 1st the committee decided to raise an 
army of 8,000 effective men out of the Massa- 
chusetts forces.^ In the meantime the Provin- 
cial Congress had been hastily summoned, and 
had resolved, April 23, 1775, to raise 13,600 
men. Proposals were also made " to the congress 
of New Hampshire, and governments of Rhode 
Island and Connecticut colonies " for furnishing 
men in the same proportion, as an army of 30,- 
000 was deemed necessary. A month later 
24,500 men had been collected in the several 
colonies. 

So thoroughly had the work of organization 
gone on in the colonies during 1773, 1774, and 
the spring of 1775, that an appeal for men 
when the siege of Boston began was immediately 
successful. Throughout the country a network 
of local committees, controlling militia compa- 

^ Records Committee of Safety. Journals Provincial Con- 
gress (Lincoln), pp. 518—523. Each company was to have a 
captain, lieutenant, ensign, four sergeants, a fifer, drummer and 
fifty men ; nine companies to form a regiment. The men were 
promised good officers. 

[ 15 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

nies and post-riders, bound together the opposition 
to the King ; this network was like a fuse which 
ran over thousands of miles of wood, meadow, 
and farm-land. The people had been able to 
follow every movement of the hostile British 
Parliament through the aid of the committees of 
correspondence and inquiry. These committees, 
formed in each colony at the suggestion of the 
Virginia House of Burgesses in March, 1773,^ 
watched the approaching storm, tested the loyalty 
of those who professed to welcome it, and guided 
the popular indignation. 

When the battle of Lexington came, the col- 
onies were as well prepared for war as the poor 
dependencies of a powerful nation could be. 
The first news of the battle was brought to the ears 
of Putnam at Pomfret the next day, and to Arnold 
at New Haven a day later ; ^ John Stark in New 
Hampshire heard it in good time. At ten o'clock 
on Wednesday morning, the 19th, Palmer, of the 
Massachusetts committee of safety, wrote a letter 
from Watertown to alarm the country " quite to 
Connecticut," entrusting it to a rider who was to 
ask for fresh horses as he went. At Fairfield, 
Connecticut, this message was overtaken by one 

1 Calendar of Virginia State Papers, vol. 8. 
'^ Stiles' s Diary, vol. i,p. 540; Durfee's Fitch (1843), p. 8. 
[ 16] 



New-York, Tuefday, April 2 f, 177;. 

Tills Day, about Noon, arrived a fccond EXPRESS from 
New-England, with the following important Advices. 



\Vai;ingford, Monday, Aptil 34, 1775. 
DtAit Sii. 

COLONEL WADS\70RTH wat owr 
III thi> place, m id of y:ll«rday, and bai 
otdcrcJ 20 men oai of each c mpany in hii 
rcpmicnt. fome of which had already fet off, 
and nthtr« go thii moroir.c;. He hriog« ac- 
counti wbicb came 10 him auibcaticated 
from Thurfday ia the afteroQan. The 
King'i trnopi being reinlorced, a (econd 
lime, and jointd, ai I fappoCe. freto what I 
can learo, by the party who were iBicrecpted 
by Col. Gardner, wire then encamped on 
Winter HiM, and were furroonded by 
20.0000! our (nes, who wrrc entrenching. 
— Colonel Gardner'i aaibuOi proved faral to 
Lord Percy, and another General Offlter. 
who v.cre killed od the fpot. the 6rft (ire — 
To ccuntcrbalance thii good newi, the Ho- 
ly ii, that oqr firft man in command, (who 
br it I know noi) ii alTo kiled — It leeot 
they hiTe loli mauy men on both fidei — 
Colonel Wadfworih bad the account a 

leitrrfioni Haritordj — The country beyond 
bcre 3fe all gone, and we cipefl it will be 
impotTible to procure horfei lor oor wag- 
goni a» they have, and will, in every place 
employ, ihemfelvti, all their horfei — in 
this pl.ice they find an horfe lor every <rlj 
man, aod are prelTing them for that piir- 
p->fe —I knowol 00 way but you muH ira' 
Bitdiaicly fend a couple of ftout able horfei, 
who may overtake ui at Hinford p(>iribly ; 
where we mud te'.yrn Mr«. Noyei'l. and 
Mcloy'.. it he holdiout fo far —Remember 
the horfe» tnufl be had at any rate —I am 
in the greauft hifte, your ebtire friend and 
humble fcrraoC 

JAMES LOCKWOOa 

N. B. Col. Gardner look 9 prifonefr. ind 
la clubbed their firelock and came over to 
*ur parly. Col. Gardacr'i party confiAed 



of 700. and the regulsrt 1800. inflesd of 
laooai we hetrd btforc J >b'y ba»e f<ri a 
vefTel up Myftick River \t far at Templf'l 
Fjrm. whiirh .« abcUt ha(f» m^e fiotti V; in- 
ter Hill. Thefe tccouott being 'rur. all 
the King'lforcei, eifcpt 4 or foo, mull be 
iacampcd oa Winre' flilV. 

At the inllance ol the gentlemen of Fair- 
field. juQ departed from btnce, thii 11 copied 
verbatim from the original, to be'foi irardeil 
10 that towa, Ifaac 6itr,, 

Piirfont Ed-mmrdl. 

New-Haven, April 54, 7 
half paR 9 Foreaoon. > 

The above copy, came anthentlcaterf, 
from the Icveral lowni through which it 
paU-'d, by the following gentlemen, via. 

Fapli:ld. 34'h Apiil, 3 o'clock afternoon, 
Thaddeut Burr, Andrew Rowland. Ehj<b 
AbeK 

Norwalk 34th April. 7 o'clock afternoon. 
John CannoD, Tbaddcui Beui. S/oucI 
Uraman, comioitlcC. 

Stamlord, 34th Aoril, I5, o'clock even- 
ing. John Hait jin. SwroucI Haiiooi 
Davii Webb, Dann. Gray. Jonathan War- 

Greenwich, April 3 f, 3 dotit mdroipg. 
Amot Mead. 

The above eenilemeo w«ite. that in each 
town, thej (hill hilJ ihenifelvei m readidef* 
X» mirch more men immediately, it wanted, 
and rctjaeft tk<ir breib/en io the W/etlern 
towoi akd governme ?!• 10 do ihe f ime, and 
that all material inteOigcace, Oia(l bs for- 
warded wiiS fpecd. 

Some atconnti mr~.t!on. that the foWiery 
iad been gulliy of fome fbocking barbari- 
licf. Id wantonly biirniog houfe» and mur- 
dering old men. *omen and children, but 
olthefe, we (hall not mcoiion pariiculir», till 
the arrival ol more ceitain and citcotn- 
flantial accounu. 



Printed from the actcfted Original, by JOHN HOLT- 



How the news was carried. An express from New England. 

(From the Gerard Bancker collection of broadsides.) 



The Origin of the Army 



written at three o'clock Thursday morning, and 
attested by the committee of correspondence 
from town to town. The news reached New 
York on Sunday, the 23d, at noon, and confirmed 
the rumors that had already begun to circulate ; 
by four o'clock a messenger was on his way to 
Philadelphia. About two o'clock of the 25th 
a second express from New England reached 
New York, his papers having been attested at 
New Haven, Fairfield, Norwalk, Stamford, and 
Greenwich. The same evening a copy reached 
Elizabethtown ; at ten it was in Woodbridge and 
signed ; at midnight it had reached New Bruns- 
wick across the Raritan and half way through 
New Jersey ; three hours and a half brought the 
good horse and its rider to Princeton ; at half- 
past six they were in Trenton, and by seven the 
attested papers were on their way to Philadel- 
phia. The committee of the city sent the news 
at midday to Chester ; at nine the man drew up 
at Newcastle, having followed the Delaware 
through the gathering darkness; he reached 
Christeen Bridge at midnight with orders to for- 
ward the papers day and night ; at half-past four, 
in the gray of the morning of April 27th, he was 
at the Head of Elk in Maryland, and after travel- 
ling seventeen hours, touching Charlestown on the 
[ 17 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

way, he reached Baltimore at ten that night. A 
hard ride along the tortuous shore of Chesapeake 
Bay through the entire night brought the news 
to Annapolis, where Carroll of Carrollton, Tilgh- 
man, and other patriots attested the papers and 
spread the tidings. 

Still on, through Alexandria and Dumfries, a 
long Sunday journey brought the papers to Fred- 
ericksburg, where the committee signed at half- 
past four. Carter Braxton met the messenger at 
King William on May 1st, nearly a fortnight 
after the battle. To the southward went the 
news, through Surry County, Williamsburg, 
Smithfield (May 3d), Nansemond, Chowan in 
North Carolina, Edenton, Beaufort County, Bath, 
Newbern (May 6th), to Onslow County, where 
the committee received it at ten o'clock Sunday 
morning of the 7th. At Wilmington on Cape 
Fear River, Harnett, of the committee, wrote, 
" For God's sake send the man on without the 
least delay," and so the news was borne to the 
committees of Little River and Georgetown, and 
on to Charleston in South Carolina. 

What a ride and for what a cause ! Through 
rain and sun and starlight this firebrand of rebel- 
lion was carried. This was a ride that made the 
colonies into a nation, and the nameless mes- 
[ 18 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



sengers and their horses deserve a page in his- 
tory.^ 

The Continental Congress resolved on June 
14th that six companies of expert riflemen be 
immediately raised in Pennsylvania, two in Mary- 
land, and two in Virginia to reenforce the army 
near Boston; each company was to consist of a 
captain, three lieutenants, four sergeants, four cor- 
porals, a drummer or trumpeter, and sixty-eight 
privates.^ The besieging army was temporarily 
under the command of General Artemas Ward 
who received his commission from Massachusetts 
as commander-in-chief on May 20th. Four days 
earlier, however, the Provincial Congress had sent 
Dr. Church to Philadelphia to offer the direction 
of the army to the Continental Congress. On 
June 15th George Washington was appointed 
"to command all the Continental forces"; on 
July 4, 1775, it was announced in general orders 
that the "troops of the United Provinces of North 
America " were taken over by Congress. The 
army then numbered not more than 14,500 men,^ 

^ American Archives IV., vol. 2, col. 363 ; and in North 
Carolina Colonial Records, vol. 9, p. 1229. 

2 June 2 2d two more companies were ordered to be raised in 
Pennsylvania. 

^ Washington ^o Congress, July 9, 1775. Journals Pro- 
vincial Congress of Massachusetts, p. 482. 

[ 19 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

including perhaps the newly organized train of 
artillery which had been authorized in April by 
the province.-^ There existed also a coastguard 
which had been raised to defend the sea-board 
towns upon which the British made depredations 
in their excursions after food.^ 

The army had scarcely settled down to besiege 
Boston before the presence of slaves and free ne- 
groes gave rise to the question of their status in 
the army. They had not, apparently, been in- 
cluded in the companies of militiamen and min- 
ute-men which were organized and drilled in the 
winter of 1774-75; but the moment a call for 
men went out, the black men presented them- 
selves for service. In May the committee of 
safety faced the matter frankly in a resolve which 
is ethically curious for its differentiation of prin- 
ciples when applied to freemen and to slaves. 
This resolve read : 

" That it is the opinion of this committee, as the con- 
test now between Great Britain and the colonies respects 

1 Journals Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, p. 220, and 
Journals Continental Congress, July 29, 1775. 

^ These men were to furnish good firelocks and were to receive 
powder from the towns in which they were stationed, the pow- 
der to be paid for by the colony. They were to serve through 
December, 1775, and to receive $36 a month and subsistence. 
— ^Journals, pp. 402, 412, 426. 

[ 20 ] 



• (■ / / : \ I 


( i^/<v.< 




< <".V/ ,,/,, ,/,/,- J /•///, 

' ' ' ' 1 


. . / 


///////■// .V,f //.I 


../ ,./..„..■... J 


•^') ) ) .) 


:, ) ■ 


6 


■ / \ 


/ 











Punishment of a soldier. 

Page from Washington's order book, July 3, 1775. 



'The Origin of the Army 



the liberties and privileges of the latter, which the colo- 
nies are determined to maintain, that the admission of 
any persons, as soldiers, into the army now raising, but 
only such as are freemen, will be inconsistent with the 
principles that are to be supported, and reflect dishonour 
on this colony ; and that no slaves be admitted into this 
army upon any consideration whatever." ^ 

The Provincial Congress considered the matter, 
and laid it on the table. Free negroes continued 
to serve in the American camp, and were conspic- 
uous at the battle of Bunker Hill in June ; 
one man, Salem Poor, " behaved like an experi- 
enced officer as well as an excellent soldier," 
according to the testimony of Colonel Prescott.^ 
They were obedient soldiers and useful labor- 
ers, of a less mutinous spirit than some of their 
white brothers.^ In July the Provincial Con- 
gress barred out all negroes, but the question 
came to the front again in the autumn of 1775, 
when the reenlistment of troops for 1776 was 
under discussion ; the council of general officers 

1 Moore's Historical Notes on the Employment of Negroes in 
the American Army, p. 5. Committee of Safety, May zo, 
1775. American Archives IV., vol. 2, col. 762. 

2 Massachusetts Archives, vol. 180, p. 241. Quoted also 
by George Livermore. 

3 General Thomas to John Adams. Massachusetts Historical 
Society Proceedings, 1862-63, p. 186. 

[ 21 ] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

voted October 23d to reject slaves and free 
negroes.-^ 

Lord Dunmore's proclamation in November, 
1775, freeing all indented servants and slaves who 
were able and willing to bear arms, to induce 
them to join the British army, probably forced a 
general order issued by Washington, December 
30th, allowing continental recruiting officers to 
enlist free negroes, and promising to bring the 
whole matter to the attention of Congress. Fi- 
nally, as a compromise. Congress permitted those 
who had served faithfully at Cambridge to reen- 
list.^ Blacks continued to serve in the army 
despite all legislative efforts to exclude them; 
a return of negroes in Washington's command 
August 24, 1778, shows that seven brigades then 
had an average of fifty-four in each.^ A Hessian 
officer said in 1777: "One sees no regiment in 
which there are not negroes in abundance, and 
among them are able-bodied, sturdy fellows.'"* 
The employment of negroes met with approval 
in many of the colonies, but not in the extreme 
South. Rhode Island purchased the freedom of 

1 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 162. 

2 Journals of Congress, January 16, 1776. 

3 Moore's Historical Notes, p. \i et seq. 
^Schloezer's Briefwechsel, vol. 4, p. 365, 

[ 22 ] 



'The Origin of the Army 



slaves before enrolling them as soldiers, trusting 
to Congress for financial aid, and many men in 
Colonel Christopher Greene's regiment were ob- 
tained in this way.^ The South, true to its tradi- 
tions, refused the urgent appeals of Colonel John 
Laurens in 1 779 and in 1 782 for permission to enlist 
colored troops, although Congress had at last come 
to favor the scheme, and it was backed by Alex- 
ander Hamilton and General Greene.^ South- 
ern statesmen were by no means of one way of 
thinking on the slavery question and on the em- 
ployment of negroes as soldiers. The views which 
Laurens expressed to his father, while highly cred- 
itable to a young man reared in South Carolina, 
were not such as would appeal to most slave-hold- 
ers. He wrote : " I would advance those who 
are unjustly deprived of the rights of mankind to 
a state which would be a proper gradation be- 
tween abject slavery and perfect liberty. . . ." 
And again : " I am tempted to believe that this 
trampled people have so much human left in 
them, as to be capable of aspiring to the rights of 
men by noble exertions, if some friend to man- 
kind would point the road, and give them a pros- 

^ Governor Greene's letter, June 3, 1779 ; in R. I. Histori- 
cal Society Collections, vol. 6, pp. 235—236. 
^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 10, p. 48. 
[ 23 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

pect of success. . . . Habits of subordination, 
patience under fatigues, sufferings and privations 
of every kind, are soldierly qualifications, which 
these men possess in an eminent degree." Lau- 
rens said with truth that five thousand black sol- 
diers might change the course of the next cam- 
paign. But it was the institution of slavery, 
not the character of the slaves, as Washington 
himself intimated, that placed obstacles in the 
way.^ Madison was disposed to favor the use 
of blacks in regiments with white officers and a 
fair proportion of white soldiers. His corre- 
spondent, Joseph Jones, could see the blessings 
of emancipation, but he wanted no hasty meas- 
ures and nothing so uncertain in its results as 
the drafting in of slaves. His statement of the 
case is strong and reasonable : 

"If they [the enemy] once see us disposed to 
arm the blacks for the field, they will follow the 
example and not disdain to fight us in our own 
way, and this would bring on the southern States 
inevitable ruin. At least it would draw off im- 
mediately such a number of the best labourers 
for the culture of the earth as to ruin individuals, 
distress the State, and perhaps the Continent, 

^ Army Correspondence of Colonel John Laurens, pp. 1 08, 
I15-118. 

[ 24 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



when all that can be raised by their assistance 
is but barely sufficient to keep us jogging along 
with the great expence of the war." ^ 

The private who marched in his company to 
reenforce the army about Boston felt somewhat 
as a voter did at a parish or a town meeting. 
The company to which he belonged was his, and 
the officers owed their authority in part to his 
favoring vote. A private from New Jersey lias 
described the mode of procedure : the men were 
"sworn to be true and faithful soldiers in the 
Continental army, under the direction of the 
Right Honorable Congress. After this we chose 
our officers. . . . When on parade, our 1st 
lieut. came and told us he would be glad if we 
would excuse him from going, which we re- 
fused ; but on consideration we concluded it was 
better to consent ; after which he said he would 
go ; but we said, ' You shall not command us, for 
he whose mind can change in an hour is not fit 
to command in the field where liberty is con- 
tended for.' In the evening we chose a private 
in his place." ^ Could there be a more vivid pict- 

1 Jones to Madison, quoted in Madison's Writings (Hunt), 
vol. I, p. io6. 

^ Aaron Wright's Revolutionary Journal; in Historical Maga- 
zine, July, 1862, p. 209. 

[ 25 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

ure of the private soldier at this period of the 
war ? There is the respect (kept well in hand) 
that is due the chief legislative body known as 
the " Right Honorable Congress " ; there is also 
evidence of a matter-of-fact management of offi- 
cers which must have been unknown to the be- 
nighted British soldier ; then comes that word 
of philosophy so characteristic of the age and 
of the undisciplined volunteer ; and finally in the 
election of a private as first lieutenant is shown 
that disregard of station which gives the picture 
its last touch.-^ 

On July 19, 1775, the army exceeded 17,000 
men, including Gridley's regiment and Crane's 
company of artillery ; ^ in the latter part of 1775 
Washington had about 19,000 effective men 

* The oath referred to above was no doubt as follows (Journals 
of Congress, June 14, 1775) : — 

1 . . . have, this day, voluntarily enlisted myself, as 
a soldier, in the American continental army, for one year, un- 
less sooner discharged : and I do bind myself to conform, in all 
instances, to such rules and regulations, as are, or shall be, es- 
tablished for the government of the said army. 

Privates who took the oath were to find their own arms 
and clothes, and were to receive ^62^3 or 40 shillings a 
month. — Journals of Congress, June 14, 1775- For the 
Massachusetts oath see Journals Provincial Congress, May 8, 

1775- 

2 Washington's Writings (Sparks), vol. 3, p. 488. 

I 26] 



'The Origin of the, Army 



near Boston, most of whom would return home 
when their terms of enhstment expired in De- 
cember or at the end of the year.^ To pay off 
this army on the old establishment, as it was 
called, and to provide one month's pay in ad- 
vance for the new establishment which was to be 
enlisted to carry on the siege, required ^278,- 
228 15s. or the sum of $927,429 ^^.^ In the 
new army, which was to have 20,'372 men in- 
cluding officers,^ the soldiers (except drummers 
and fifers) were to furnish good arms or when 
provided by Congress to allow a deduction of six 
shillings from their pay ; a stoppage of ten shil- 
lings a month was to be made from each man's 
pay until his debt for clothing was cancelled/ 
Although this was an unsatisfactory method at 
times, and the payment of wages by the calendar 
month was even more disliked,^ the soldier was 
told to be cheerful over the fact that he received 
higher pay than private soldiers ever had in any 

^ American Historical Review, vol. i, p. 292 ; Washington's 
Writings (Sparks), vol. 3, p. 493. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 296. 

^Journals of Congress, Nov. 4, 1775. 

* Washington's Orderly Book, October 31, November 12, 
1775, in his Writings (Ford), vol. 3, pp. 191, 221. 

5 Rev. B. Boardman's Diary; in Massachusetts Historical 
Society Proceedings, May, 1892, p. 412. 
[ 27 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

former war.^ Another blessing of war came 
when the colonies, at the request of Congress, 
prohibited the arrest of Continental soldiers for 
debts under thirty-five dollars, or the attachment 
of their property for sums under one hundred 
and fifty dollars.^ 

When the principles involved in the creation of 
a new army for the year 1776 came under con- 
sideration, the duration of the contest was very 
uncertain. Congress recommended to Massachu- 
setts and Connecticut a two-year or a one-year 
term ; it was found that men hesitated to pledge 
their services for the entire war, and at that time 
the military profession was so little known and so 
untried by those who were fitted only for the 
ranks that they did not turn to it as readily as 
they did to farming. John Adams contended 
that a regiment might possibly be obtained in 
New England "of the meanest, idlest, most in- 
temperate and worthless, but no more. A regi- 
ment was no army to defend this country. We 
must have tradesmen's sons and farmers' sons, or 
we should be without defence, and such men 
certainly would not enlist during the war, or for 

1 Washington's Orderly Book, October 31, November 12, 
1775, in his Writings (Ford), vol. 3, pp. 191, 221. 

2 Journals of Congress, December 26, 1775. 

[ 28 ] 



'E wluje Names are. under written, Jo hefehy feveraJy InVif} our/tlveiinU 
the Service of the United American Colonics, end feverally promije^ 
tndetigagt to continue infuch Service, until the fir ft "Day if December, i yjSt 
ttnlefs (boner *Difcharged; dndlofurni/h outjdves each u<i}h a good efeEiivi 
Fire >Arm,and iffojjfible.a Bayonet fitted (hereto, a Cartridge Box and Blanket, 
or in L.itti cj a Bayonet, a Hatchet er Tomaiami •• — ^e alfo ia. like MfinHer 
■■promifeand engtge to obey all the Uwfvl Commands of the Officers appointed or 
to be appointed over us, purfuant to the Refolves of the General Court of the 
Colony 0/ Maflachufetts-Bay : and under the'DireRion vf fuch Officers to march, 
mheit ordered, with the utmojl "Difpcftch. to the Northern 'Department »rCanada, 
end 10 he fuhjeSi to all facb Rules and Reptlatiom, in every RtfpeB, a ate 
fttviitd for the Continental Army. July 3776. 

An enlistment blank of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1776. 



W£ the Suhfcriiers do hereby frverally inliji eurfelves into the Service fl/zA^Unifed 
American Colonie:, xintit the ftrft T}iy e/" January next, if the Service Jhould 
require it ;->-<ind each efut dO' engage to furnijh. and carry with us into tit Servict afore- 
faid. agndtff'eBivt Fire A.rm *nd Blanket ; (alfo, a good Bayonet, Cartridge Poutb, and 
a Hatchet, orTimahewk, or Culting-Sword, if fofftbie ;) andwe feverall/con/ent la be 
formed by fucb Perfin or Perjons es the. General Court jfhail appoint, into a Company of 
Ninety Men, irtclMding one Captain, two Lieutenants, one Enjign; four Serjeants, fvir 
Corporals., one 'Drum, and 9ne Fife, to be eleBed by ibeCompany and ctmmijfionated by the 
Council, and when formed, we engage to March into Canada, -uiith theutmtfi Expedition, 
and t9 be under fuch Field Officers as the General Caurt have appointed, of /ball appoint; 
and we ft^ihtrlogree, during theTime afore fuid, to be/uijeSl tofueh GeneraU, or fuperitr 
Officers, as are or-Jball be appointed'; and to be under facb Kegttlatisits,\in every Kef^^, 
^s are provided for fie virmy gforejaid. ^ated the of 

A. Z>. 1776. 

An enlistment blank of 1776. 



'The Origin of the Army 



long periods, as yet. The service was too new ; 
they had not yet become attached to it by habit. 
Was it credible that men who could get at home 
better living, more comfortable lodgings, more 
than double the wages, in safety, not exposed to 
the sicknesses of the camp, would bind them- 
selves during the war"? I knew it to be impos- 
sible." ^ This is the view of a shrewd observer 
of New England character, a politician who, it 
may fairly be said, knew those of whom he wrote. 
On the other hand, he does not seem to count the 
influence of patriotism and love of adventure ; 
these certainly would have moved some to for- 
sake their comforts and good wages for the army, 
even had the term of service been long. With 
a small permanent force many troubles of the 
next few years might have been banished, pro- 
vided, of course, the force was large enough to 
carry on the war. The size of the army that 
could have been raised will always remain debat- 
able. 

The advantage of long over short terms of en- 
listment has the weight of all authorities famil- 
iar with raising, equipping, and drilling recruits. 
Washington himself said on this subject : " The 

^ John Adams's Autobiography, in his Works (C. F. Adams), 
1851, vol. 3, p. 48. 

[ 29 ] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

evils arising from short or even any limited in- 
listment of the troops are greater and more ex- 
tensively hurtful than any person (not an eye- 
witness to them) can form any idea of It takes 
you two or three months to bring new men in 
any tolerable degree acquainted with their duty ; 
it takes a longer time to bring a people of the 
temper and genius of these into such a subor- 
dinate way of thinking as is necessary for a sol- 
dier. Before this is accomplished, the time ap- 
proaches for their dismissal, and you are begin- 
ning to make interest with them for their con- 
tinuance for another limited period ; in the doing 
of which you are obliged to relax in your disci- 
pline, in order as it were to curry favor with them, 
by which means the latter part of your time is 
employed in undoing what the first was accom- 
plishing. . . . Congress had better determine 
to give a bounty of 2o, 30, or even 40 Dollars 
to every man who will Inlist for the whole time." * 
Joseph Hawley, of the Provincial Congress, might 
be quoted in reply that no bounty would induce 

^Washington to Reed, February i, 1776, in his Writings 
(Ford), vol. 3, p. 400. For some suggestive remarks on 
short enlistments and an untrained militia during the wars sub- 
sequent to the Revolution, see Hazard Stevens's address, October 
14, 1898, " Reform the militia system " (Boston, 1898). 
[ 30 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



New England men to enlist for more than two 
years.^ 

The popular feeling in the autumn of 1776 is 
well shown by the following extract from a letter 
of Josiah Bartlett, a delegate in Congress from 
Rhode Island : " I am fully sensible," he writes, 
" of the great difficulties we labour under by the 
soldiers being enlisted for such short periods, and 
that it would have been much better had they at 
first received a good bounty, and been enlisted to 
serve during the war. But you may recollect the 
many, and, to appearance, almost insuperable 
difficulties that then lay in our way. No money, 
no magazines of provisions, no military stores, no 
government; in short, when I look back, and 
consider our situation about fifteen months ago, 
instead of wondering that we are in no better 
situation than at present, I am surprised we are 
in so good." ^ 

The colonies, particularly at the north where 
democracy was less tolerant of militarism, dread- 
ed a standing army,^ which to most minds had 

1 American Archives V., vol. i, col. 404. 

^ Ibid.yVoX. 2, col. 118. 

3 *' The well disciplining the militia renders useless that danger- 
ous power and grievous Burden, a standing Jrmy.''^ — T. Pick- 
ering in the Essex Gazette, January 31, 1769, p. 1. 

[ 31 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washijigton 

some close but mysterious connection with " en- 
listing for the war." Among northern officers 
this feeling crystallized into a leaning toward 
colony affiliation in preference to Congressional 
control; Governor Ward of Rhode Island, who 
was no enemy to the Continental system, attrib- 
uted the slow enlistment under the new establish- 
ment to dislike of plans brought forward through 
southern influence favorable to an army "wholly 
Continental " or attached solely to the Congress.^ 
The difficulties which were encountered in 
raising, equipping, and supporting a regular army 
led to the frequent use of militia. This in turn 
hindered the pursuit of agriculture and brought 
about a greater scarcity of food,^ while the con- 
stant coming and going of men, some of whom 
had been hired at exorbitant rates — $150 in spe- 
cie for five months of service — increased the 
consumption of supplies without adding propor- 
tionately to the effective force. Men were to be 
seen in the country taverns and upon the roads, 
some returning from service, some away on fur- 
lough, and too many away through desertion. 

1 Samuel Ward to his brother, November 21, 1775; in 
W. Gammell's Life of Ward (Sparks's Library of American 
Biography, second series, ix., p. 327). 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 8, p. 395. 

[ 32 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



In a war of great successes their presence in the 
country might have encouraged enlistments by- 
awaking a warlike spirit ; in a war of delay and 
hardships they must have done little or nothing 
to offset the heavy cost of travel and rations 
while on their journey. The amusing experience 
of a not over-scrupulous private while on his 
travels has been related by himself: 

"The 20th [February, 1780] I leaves Mr. 
Lowdens [at New Windsor] and Crosses the 
North River and Comes to Fishkill, and gos to 
a offiser to git an order to Draw provision, and 
he hapened to be there that I Drue provision on 
the Day before, he said, Did not you Draw 
Eight Days yesterday (I found I was Cached). 
I said yes but that was to Carry me to Boston. 
He said how I Could draw at Litchfield and at 
Hartford. I said I did not want to Draw it there 
to have to Carry it." ^ 

The captains and lieutenants were kept busy 
training raw recruits ; this work was not left to 
sergeants and corporals, as it seemed best to have 
a closer bond between the officers and their 
men.^ Baron Steuben was an ardent advocate 

^Elijah Fisher's Journal, p. 13. The punctuation has been 
supplied. 

^ A. Graydon's Memoirs, pp. 117— 122. 

[ zz ] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

of personal contact of officer and private ; he had 
no patience with the British custom of giving 
over the awkward squads to sergeants. He rose 
at three in the morning during the manoeuvres, 
says his biographer North, drank a cup of coffee 
and smoked a single pipe while his servant dressed 
his hair; at sunrise he was on horseback. A year 
or two later when his theories of training had 
come to have their influence he said : "Do you 
see there, sir, your colonel instructing that recruit? 
I thank God for that." ^ His own interest in the 
rank and file was very real. One day during the 
roll-call Steuben heard a private answer to the 
name Arnold ; he summoned the man to his tent, 
told him that so good a soldier should not bear 
a traitor's name, and gave him permission to be 
known thereafter as Steuben.^ 

Increase in the price of food and clothing 
which accompanies war tends to check the en- 
listment of married men, and the rise in artisans' 
wages still further operates in the same direction 
where men have families dependent upon them 
for support. Under these conditions the bounty 
or pay must be advanced, as was ably set forth in 
the time of the Civil War by Governor OHver P. 

^Kapp's Steuben (1859), pp. 130, 131. 
2 Ibid.y p. 290. 

[ 34 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



Morton of Indiana in an address to Congress in 
1862, entitled "Increase of Pay of private Sol- 
diers." Colonel Cortlandt related to General Gates 
a case that tells of the married man's trials : " The 
bearer hereof, William Foster, a soldier in Col- 
onel Wynkoop's regiment, having lately buried 
his wife, and has with him now at this place five 
small children, and no way to provide provision 
for them unless he can be discharged to go to a 
small farm he has some distance from here, and 
begs me to write in his favour to procure his dis- 
charge." ^ 

The privations of army life were trifling when 
compared with the worry that was caused by a 
knowledge of the privation at home. The steady 
increase of taxes in 1779-82 and the departure 
of farm-hands to the front drove women almost 
to desperation. State and town officials endeav- 
ored to aid and support the wives and children 
of the soldiers,^ and to check and punish those 
who forced up the necessities of life beyond the 
prices agreed upon by state or county conven- 
tions and accepted by the towns.^ Salt, so nec- 

^ American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 573. 
^Miss Caulkins's New London (1852), p. 503. Wheel- 
er's History of Brunswick, Me., pp. 125, 126, 170. 

^ New London, p. 503 ; Parmenter's Pelham, Mass., p. 137. 

[ 35 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

essary to every farm that had live stock, rose 
from about thirty cents a bushel to almost as 
many dollars ; tea and molasses also advanced to 
a price that bore hard upon the poor.^ Women 
did the hard work of the farm, with a sugges- 
tion or word of advice at long intervals from 
their absent husbands. A private at the siege 
of Boston wrote to his wife and children in 

1775- 

" I must Bee Short ! gat 2 or 3 Bushel of Solt 

as quick as you Can for it will Bee Deer, and 

what [cattle ?] the Barn will Not Winter [?>., 

hold through the winter] the Sailer Sail [cellar 

shall ?] ; and give them as good a chance [to 

thrive] as you Can and as for my Coming 

home I Can Not if you Sant ten men in my 

Room." ^ 

There was at the same time, if Dr. Benjamin 

Rush is right in his assertion, an increase in the 

birth-rate in America, implying prosperity or at 

least easy circumstances among a considerable 

part of the population.^ In the larger centres 

of trade the increased circulation of money, the 

growth in importation of goods and in transpor- 

1 Stevens's Facsimiles, No. 2082. 
^Parmenter's Pelham, p. 129. 
3 Massachusetts Magazine for 1791, p. 360. 
[ 36 ] 



Tl'he Origin of the Army 



tation of grain, with an undoubted demand for 
labor, all combined to give an appearance of 
good times to that class which has nothing to 
lose by war. The men about the taverns, the 
small shops, and the wharves married and cared 
for their families. Dr. Rush declares that from 
the year 1776 to the close of the war beggars 
were rarely seen. The burdens of the war were 
not wiped out, but were placed upon the owners 
of the soil ; poverty was lifted from the town poor 
to fall upon the farmers. 

As it became more and more difficult for 
farmers to support their families, it is no surprise 
to find that after the first enthusiasm had died 
away, the enlistment of men was slow and un- 
pleasant. An officer would go to the village 
tavern, wax eloquent, and pass round the toddy 
until some country lad was moved to sign his name 
to the papers ; but unless an officer was shrewd, 
he came away with his money spent and no re- 
cruit at his back. That his errand was some- 
times a relief to a town may be inferred from a 
note in Graydon's Memoirs : 

" Mr. Heath . . . helped us ... to 

a recruit, a fellow, he said, who would do to stop 

a bullet as well as a better man, and as he was 

a truly worthless dog, he held that the neighbor- 

[ 37 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

hood would be much indebted to us for taking 
him away." ^ 

Another writer has pictured the motley throng 
of men and boys, in all stages of intoxication, that 
gathered about a recruiting officer in a seaport 
town. When the band which he employed to 
gather a crowd had stopped playing he stood at 
the street corner beneath a flag and sang in a 
comical manner : 

All you that have bad masters. 

And cannot get your due. 
Come, come, my brave boys, 

And join with our ship's crew. 

This was followed by cheers and a commotion 
in which men were persuaded or driven to the 
wharves and aboard a privateer that was ready 
for a cruise.^ 

Many undesirable army recruits were sent to 
camp, and upon one occasion General Parsons 
forwarded seven useless fellows to Hartford that 
the Connecticut Legislature might see what im- 
position was practised by some recruiting of- 
ficers.^ Congress decided in January, 1776, to 

1 Gray don's Memoirs, p. 135. 
^E. Fox's Revolutionary Adventures, p. 56. 
3 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 9, p. 156. ■>' 
[ 38 ] 



The Origin of the Ar??iy 



disapprove the employment of prisoners, and thus 
closed to the enlistment officer a hopeful field for 
his efforts. When voluntary enlistments fell off 
the authorities resorted to drafts ; these were not 
always successful, especially in the disaffected 
districts, where many officers and men so obtained 
proved to be Tories at heart.^ When the militia 
were well fed and clothed, with good officers to 
make them contented, numbers of the rank and 
file could be trusted at times to go home to gath- 
er recruits. Colonel Thomson, of South Carolina, 
on one occasion wished to send most of his men 
away on furlough, so that they might return in 
time with lusty country lads at their heels.^ 

No doubt there was an element less readily 
moved to enlist by patriotism than by material and 
tangible considerations, however deep, strong, and 
broad the unseen current of loyalty might be. A 
warm, pleasant day in the autumn of 1775 and a 
cheering glass of grog helped the officers who 
were recruiting for the army of 1 776.^ This, the 
testimony of an officer at Roxbury, fairly repre- 

1 American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 206. 

2 Thomson to Rutledge and to Hovi^e, June 9, 1777, in Sal- 
ley's Orangeburg County, S. C, pp. 450, 451. 

3J. Fitch, Jr.'s, Diary, November 14, 1775 ; in Massachu- 
setu Historical Society Proceedings, May, 1894, p. 80. 

[ 39 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

sents the easy-going spirit which governed men of 
a certain class. They were not the privates who 
studied by the camp-fire and kept diaries, but 
many were none the less useful soldiers. A battle 
sifts men by a process unknown to the days of 
peace, bringing to the front unexpected heroes. 
Can you not see two of them now — Haines at 
Bemis Heights, astride the muzzle of a British 
brass twelve-pounder, ramming his bayonet into 
the thigh of a savage foe, recovering himself to 
parry the thrust of a second, and, quick as a tiger, 
dashing the same bloody bayonet through his 
head ; recovering again, only to fall from the can- 
non, shot through the mouth and tongue ; lying 
two nights on the battle-field until thirst, hunger, 
and loss of blood overcame him, then in the ranks 
of the dead made ready for burial ; and from all 
this recovering for three years more of service and 
a green old age : ^ or again, that unknown dare- 
devil whose swaying figure stood out upon the 
parapet of the entrenchments about Yorktown, 
brandishing his spade at every ball that burred 
about him, finally going to his death, " damning 
his soul if he would dodge." ^• 

1 Kidder's First New Hampshire Regiment, p. 23. 
^ Captain James Duncan's Diary ; in Pennsylvania Archives, 
second series, vol. 15, p. 748. 

[ 40 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



" The common people," said General Greene, 
referring to New England, " are exceedingly ava- 
ricious ; the genius of the people is commercial 
from their long intercourse with trade." ^ This 
spirit prompted many from the towns to make 
the best bargain possible when they enlisted for 
the year 1776, while the farmers, who usually saw 
very little money, coveted the bounty that was 
offered. Washington had an independent in- 
come ; the poorer officers and the rank and file 
depended for their subsistence and the support of 
their families upon their meagre and uncertain 
pay. This difference in condition did not impress 
Washington with sufficient force in his first en- 
counter with the army. There was no doubt " a 
dirty, mercenary spirit" which to some extent 
made possible "stock-jobbing and fertility in all 
low arts to obtain advantages of one kind and 
another," but that it " pervaded the whole " one 
must doubt. The diaries of officers and privates, 
written with no thought of publication, show a 
loyalty and in some instances a religious earnest- 
ness that must indicate widespread moral purpose.^ 

^ Greene to Ward, December 18, 1775 ; in Greene's Na- 
thanael Greene (1867), vol. I, p. 126. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. i, p. 81 ; vol. 3, p. 
247. 

[41 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

The character and care of the private soldiers 
were subjects for debate in every town that la- 
bored diligently to keep its quota of men in 
the field. As the farmers sat about the fire in 
the stuffy town threshing the matter out, a weather- 
worn, weary volunteer home upon furlough often 
sat there too and heard what they thought 
of him. Sometimes he had an opportunity to 
know what the leaders thought. Elijah Fisher 
has described his interview with the commit- 
tee of inquiry in Boston, whither he went to 
get satisfaction, having complained because they 
deducted from the amount still due him as 
wages on account of the depreciation in paper 
money, the bounty which he had received. 
The punctuation has been added, but the story 
is his : 

" One of the Comita, start[ing] up, with his 
grate wigg, said the sholgers had been used very 
well ; sometimes these things were not to be got, 
and then we could not have them as soon as we 
should wish. I was rong in acusing and talking 
as you [I ■?] do. 

" Then spake up another, that set a little Dis- 
tance and heard what was said (a black haired 
man), in my behalf, and said that the sholgers 
had been used very ill as this man said, and that 
[ 42 ] 



The Origin of the Army 



they are cheated out of a good eel that they 
ought to have. . . . " ^ 

It was no light task to bring an army into the 
field and maintain it for years, combating success- 
fully the local prejudices of northerner and south- 
erner, the greed for bounties, the trials that follow 
a depreciating currency and an advance in the 
price of family necessities, the fear of militarism 
and the dislike of strict discipline in an age of 
democratic theories. That the army about Bos- 
ton had the virtues that characterized many of the 
soldiers themselves no one will doubt. That it 
fell short in certain particulars may be surmised 
from the exclamation of a southern rifleman in 
the camp at Prospect Hill in September, 1775: 
" Such Sermons, such Negroes, such Colonels, 
such Boys, & such Great Great Grandfathers." '^ 

^ E. Fisher's Journal, p. 14. 

2 Letter of Jesse Lukens ; in Boston Public Library Histori- 
cal Manuscripts, No. i, p. 27. 



[ 43 ] 



II 

Maintaining the Forces 

WITH the opening of spring in the year 
1776 (March 17th) the British evacu- 
ated Boston, and Washington was free 
to turn his attention to New York. The new 
field of action was far from the farms of many of 
the volunteers and they were anxious to be re- 
lieved from service; the people in the central 
colonies were by no means united in support of 
the patriot cause and army life among them was 
not found to be as pleasant as it had been in New 
England. The situation from a military point of 
view was more difficult than in Massachusetts, 
and Washington, learning his lessons as a com- 
mander in the school of experience, made life 
harder for the rank and file. Recruits were few, 
and there was need of some method to increase 
the army for the new enterprises. 

Early in June Congress drew up a plan to en- 
list militia, 6,000 for the campaign in Canada, 
13,800 for New York, and 10,000 for a flying 
camp in the middle colonies ; but the bounty of 
[ 44 ] 



Maintaining the Forces 



$10 which was offered had Httle effect upon men 
who could get a larger sum for shorter emergency 
service in the local organizations.^ Two other 
inducements were held out, a gift of land as sug- 
gested by Washington,^ and a provision for sol- 
diers who should be so injured that they could no 
longer serve in the army nor get their livelihood 
by their labor.^ 

A serious obstacle which confronted the eastern 
States at this time in their attempts to fill their 
quotas was an excessive rage for privateering which 
drew from New England alone some 10,000 
hardy, brave men. Clever advertisements in the 
newspapers^ and alluring posters were handed 
about; these, with marvellous stories of spoils 
from the West Indies, repeated from mouth to 
mouth, fostered discontent in camp and checked 
enlistments at home.^ Vast numbers, said Mrs. 
Adams, were employed in privateering, and offi- 
cers were not too particular in the methods used 
to get recruits away from the militia.^ Self- 

1 Journals of Congress, June 26, 1776. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 380. 
^Journals of Congress, August 26, 1776. 

■* Miss Caulkins's New London, p. 541. 
5 B. Rust to R. H. Lee; in American Archives V., vol. 3, 
col. 1513 ; also ibid., vol. 2, col. 337. 
^ Ibid., vol. 2, col. 599 ; col. 622. 

[ 45 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

interest, said John Paul Jones, and this only, in- 
fluenced owners and sailors who preferred priva- 
teers to the navy service.^ Looking at the matter 
in another way, privateers were a blessing; they 
offered protection to helpless seaport towns, and 
discouraged petty marauding expeditions of the 
British against fishing villages. This work of 
the privateers freed the militia from service in 
the coastguard, and permitted a concentration of 
forces for larger undertakings.^ 

The prevalence of smallpox about Boston in 
the summer of 1776 added to the trials of Massa- 
chusetts recruiting officers, and made help from 
that section of the country less welcome to the 
army at New York ; ^ but the need of reenforce- 
ments was so urgent that any risk seemed justifi- 
able. The effect of enlistments and drafts upon 
the population of a small town are described by 
Mrs. John Adams in September, 1776: 

" Forty men," she writes, " are now drafted from 
this town. More than one half, from sixteen to 
fifty, are now in the service. ... I hardly 

^American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 1105. See also Rhode 
Island Historical Society Collections, vol. 6, p. 207. 

2 James Lyon, in American Archives V., vol. I, col. 1282. 

^Serle to Lord Dartmouth, August 12th. Stevens's Facsim- 
iles, No. 2041. 

[46] 




.^^^-^: 



Jm 







R h A 



E N C O U Iti>i: G E M E N-SP: 



O R 



SEA> 





LL GENTLEMEN SEAMEN and able-bodied LANDSMFt^ . ^ 
wlio hn'c a MinJ W difiinguifti tlitmklvci in tlie GLORIOUS _^ 
CAUSL of their Ob rnv, and make ibeir tortuues, an. Op- > 
nity nu« »»" on foyd^be Ship R ANGER, oViTwiaiy"- 
Olins. ((m Ft*i.ci) linw. layi*' i» Pouts voTrrH,"T(rt!ti StaCe oT New-Hamf-". <■ J 
In J3? We J U H IS l-AUL JONErfc^l Iq; let them repair lo ihc bhip s Kcidez- 
■^■ouc in Portsmouth, or at the Sign of Coiflnioctjjrc Manliv, m Salsh, wllwe they will be kind- 
ly entertained, -snd receive the greatert Eocourai^mrnt.- -The Ship Rancfh, in the Opinion of 
every Pcrfon wAo has fccn her is looked upon t&hf one of the bcfl Cnjizcrs in America.— She 
wall be always able to Fight her Guns undcf ^Jnoft excellent Cover ; and no Vcli'cl yet built 
was ever calculated for failing faftcr, and.nwi'ns; g"""' Weather. i 

,^ny Gentlemen VoLtJNTEERi who have a^lind to take an agrcable Voyage in this plealant 
Seafon of tlic Year, may, by entering oa boaal the abc.c Ship Ranger, meet with every 
Civility thcr can poiiibly cxpc^, and for a farther Eucouragcnicnt depend on the firft Op- 

i:ibraccd to rc.vard each one agrcable to his Merit. ' 



portunity be^M^'t 

^ All reafoj^^!.;^ Tjavellinj 
' - "'their .^ppcaratJci on Board. 



Expenses xviU tie allowed, and the Advance-Money be paid on 



N G R E S S, March 2q, 



J 



THAT i.'ic Mapinf. Committee be .authbrifcd to advance to every able Seaman, that 
enters into the Continfntal Seiivic|, any Sum not exceeding FORTY D O L. 
L .-V R S, and to every ordinary Soman or jLandiinan, any Sum not exccedir.g TWEN- 
TY DOLLARS, to be deduced from their future PrizeMoney. 

, j ISy Order of C o n c R E s J, 

^ O H N HANCOCK, Peesiotht. 



V.tM-LK:>: F:micJ by E. Re 



the Hou/c Iaic the BeJl-Tarero. 



A very rare broadside inviting enlistment under Paul Jones. 1777- 

(Original owned by the Esse.x Institute, Salem.) 



I 



Maintaining the Forces 



think you can be sensible how much we are 
thinned in this Province. . . . If it is neces- 
sary to make any more drafts upon us, the women 
must reap the harvests. I am willing to do my 
part. I believe I could gather corn and husk it, 
but I should make a poor figure at digging po- 
tatoes." ^ 

The absence of militiamen during harvest time 
was a serious loss to a town in the destruction of 
unharvested crops ; the knowledge of this preyed 
upon the minds of the farmer-soldiers themselves 
and led to desertion.^ " In some parishes," wrote 
Colonel Fitch, of Connecticut, " but one or two 
[men] are left ; some have got ten or twelve loads 
of hay cut, and not a man left to take it up ; some 
five or six, under the same circumstances; some 
have got a great quantity of grass to cut ; some 
have not finished hoeing corn; some, if not all, 
have got all their ploughing to do, for sowing 
their winter grain; some have all their families 
sick, and not a person left to take care of them. 
. . . It is enough to make a man's heart 
ache to hear the complaints of some of them."^ 

^American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 599 (September 29th). 
2 Uid., vol. I, col. 172. 

3 Jonathan Fitch to Governor Trumbull, August 13, 1776; 
in American Archives V., vol. i, col. 938. 

[ 47 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

In the southern colonies the minds of the recruits 
from the frontier or "back country" were fre- 
quently harassed by rumors of Indian raids upon 
their homes. Officers at such times asked for fur- 
loughs or resigned, and privates deserted in their 
desperation.^ 

Under these circumstances the most pressing 
calls for more troops met with little response from 
the people. They felt that they had done enough, 
and the legislatures were either unwilling or un- 
able to urge them to further sacrifice. If Con- 
gress itself was slow to see the need of a greater 
army, the disaster at Long Island in August pro- 
duced an immediate change. Upon September 
l6th Congress voted that eighty-eight battalions 
be enlisted to serve during the war.^ Each non- 
commissioned officer and private was promised 
a bounty of $20, and a hundred acres of land 

1 Salley's Orangeburg County, S. C, p. 439. 

2 The apportionment was : 

New Hampshire . . 3 battalions Delaware i battalion 

Massachusetts Bay. 1 5 '* Maryland 8 battalions 

Rhode Island .... 2 " Virginia 15 " 

Connecticut 8 ** North Carolina. 9 " 

New York 4 " South Carolina. 6 " 

New Jersey 4 '• Georgia i battalion 

Pennsylvania 12 ♦♦ 

Sixteen additional battalions were authorized later. (Heath's 

Memoirs, p. 116, and Journals of Congress, December 27th.) 

[ 48 ] 



In congress, 

SEPTEMBER 16, 1776. 



R 



E S O L V E D Thjt eighty-tight Battilioni be enlifted u loon as polTible. to lenre 
during the prefent War, md thii «Kh Stue fumifli their refpeaivc Quouj in Uie 
following Proportion!, viz. 

New-Hunplhire - - - 3 Battilionj. 

MalTachufetH-Bav - • - 15 Ditto. 

Rhode-lttand ' - - - ^ Ditto. 

Connefticut - - - • 8 Ditto. 

New- York - - - 4 Ditto. 

Ncw-Jeifey - - • ♦ Ditto. 

Pennlylvania . . - iz Ditto. 

Delaware - - - - l Ditto. 

Maryland . . - : Ditto, 

Virginia - - - - '5 Ditto. 

North-Crolina - - - 9 Ditto. 

South-Carolina . . . 6 Dino. 

Georgia - - - • i Ditto. 

That Twenty Dollars be given as a Bounty to each non-commilTioned Officer and private 
Soldier, who Ihall enlift to ferve during the prefent War, unle6 fooner difcharged by Congrtfs. 

That Congrefs make Provifion for granting Lands in the following Proportions to theOfScers 
and Soldiers who Ihall fo engage in the service, and continue therein to the Clofc ot the War, or 
until difcharged by Congreis, and to the Beprcfcnuiives ot fuch Officers and Soldiers as fliall be 
Oain by the Enemy j fuch Lands to be provided by the United States, and whatever Expence 
Ihall be necelTary to procure fuch Land, the faid Expencc (hall be paid and borne by the Statei 
in the fame Proportion as the othet Expcnces of the War, viz. 

To a Colonel - - 500 Acres. 

a Lieutenant-Colonel - - 450 Ditto, 

a Major -' . - 400 Ditto. 

a Captain • • * 300 Ditto, 

a Lieutenant ... 200 Ditto. 

an Enfign - - - - 150 Bittn, 

Each non-commilEoned Officer and Soldier 100 Acres. 

That ihe Appointment of all Officers and filling up Vacancies (except general Officers'^ be 
lek to the Governments ot the fevcral Slates, and that every State provide Arms, Cicathing, 
and every Neccffary for its Quota of Troops according to the toregoing Ellimate j the Expcnce 
of the Cloathing to be deducted from the pay ot the Soldiers as yftul. 
That alt Officers be commidioned by Congrefs. 

That it be tecommended to the feveral States that they take the m6ft fpecdy and effefttial 
Meafures for enliding their fevcral Quotas. That the Money to be given for Bounties be paid 
by the Payraafter in the Department where the Soldier Ihall enUft. 

That each Soldier receive Pay and SiIbGftence from the Time of their Enliftment. 

September 18, 1776. 
RESOLVED, Thai if Rations be received by the Officers or Privates in the Continental 
Atmy in Money, they be paid at the Kate of Eight Ninetieth Patis of a Dollar per Ration. 

That the Bounty and Grants of Land, offered by Congrefs by a Refolution of the 16th InftanC 
as an Encouragement 10 the Officers and Soldiers to enf^age to ferve in the Army of the Utiiteti 
States during the War, (hall extend to all who are or (hall be enlitted for that Term, the Bounty 
ot Ten Dollars which any ot the Soldiers have received from the Continent on Account of i lor- 
mer Enlillment, tu be reckoned in part Payment of the Twenty Dollars offered by laid Relolution. 
That no Officer in the Coniinental Atmy is allowed to hold more than oneCommifTion, or to 
receive Pay but in one Capacity. 

S 1 p t E M B E a 19. 1776. 

That the Adjutants of Regiments in the Continental Army be allowed the Pay and Rationa 
of Captains, and have the Rank of Firll Lieutenants. 

Ik order to prevent the Officers and Soldiers who (hall be entitled to the Lands hereafter to he 
granted by the Refolution ot Congrefs of the i6th, frum difpofing of the fame during the War, 

RESOLVED, That this Congrefs will not grant Lands to any Perfon or Perfont claiming 
under the AITignn-ent- of an Officer or Solder. 

Bji Order of the Congress, 
JOHN HANCOCK, President. 

Resolution of Congress to enlist 88 battalions. 



Maintaining the Forces 



were to be given to him, or to his representa- 
tive if he was " slain by the enemy " before the 
close of the war. The expense necessary to pro- 
cure the land was to be borne by the States in the 
same proportion as the other expenses of the war. 
The States were to provide arms, clothing, and 
every necessity, the cost of the clothing to be de- 
ducted from the pay of the men.-* A little later, 
however, Congress voted a suit of clothes (or $20 
if the soldier owned the clothes) to be given 
annually as a further inducement.^ Washington 
in general orders November 10, 1776, announced 
that those who enlisted into the new army would 
have the usual pay and rations, but no boys or 
old men and no deserters would be received. At 
the same time the army regulations were repealed 
and a more rigorous code was put in force to 
bring the service to a higher standard of disci- 
pline.^ 

The plan to raise eighty-eight battalions, so 
simple on paper, developed endless complications. 
The States, as might be expected, found it diffi- 

1 Journals of Congress, September 16, 1776. 

^ Ibid., October 8, 1776. 

3 American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 561. In November 
Gates's force numbered 11,526 men ; Lee had 10,768 men. 
(^Ibid., vol. 3, cols. 702, 710.) See also W. Eddis's Letters 
from America (1792), pp. 342, 343. 

[ 49 ] 



The Private Soldier Under JVashingtofi 

cult to fill their quotas, and they resorted to ad- 
ditional bounties ; Connecticut and Massachusetts 
voted 20J". a month to privates above that al- 
lowed by Congress, and $33/^ additional bounty; 
New Jersey offered $53/^ ; Maryland objected 
to giving money in any case and wished to sub- 
stitute land.^ At a meeting of New England 
delegates to regulate prices the plea was made 
that Congress would not increase the pay of 
soldiers to meet high prices and a larger bounty 
was the last resort. Massachusetts then offered 
$86^, and New Hampshire did the same. In 
this confusion the bewildered recruits stood ir- 
resolute, hoping that bounties had but just begun 
their upward course. Meanwhile the eighty- 
eight battalions had to be filled by drafts of one 
man in four or five, excluding, however, those 
already in service, those in seaboard or frontier 
towns, school-masters, students, and a portion of 
those employed in powder-mills.^ The men who 

1 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 5, pp. 18, 20, 213, 
notes, 

2 American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 763. Many who paid 
a fine rather than go when drafted received a receipt similar to 
the following : ♦' Reed of Mr. Caleb Craft the Sum of Ten 
Pounds Lawfull Money in full for his fine he Refuseing to go 
a Solder when Draughted by the Town." — MS. in Brookline 
Public Library. 

[ 50 ] 



( •'^'■'^J 






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^c^,. /.„y,../ /^— /Aw./. 




5^, *-v^,.y^«^ -^"^ 'i'r/Z.X.-V, .., .-.. "'..> /"" •" 





Orders relating to private soldiers. 
Page from Washington's order book, Nov. 9, 1776. 



Maintaining the Forces 



served in the artillery — known as bombardiers and 
matrosses — held back so persistently that Wash- 
ington was forced to offer an advance in pay of 
twenty-five per cent, to obtain the necessary 
numbers.^ 

The Continental army had its first time of se- 
rious privation in the winter that was juSt setting 
in; the soldiers in the northern camps especially 
deserve to share the fame that came to those 
who suffered and survived at Valley Forge a year 
later. A gentleman, writing from Ticonderoga 
December 4, 1776, concluded his letter with the 
words : 

" For all this Army at this place, which did 
consist of twelve or thirteen thousand men, sick 
and well, no more than nine hundred pair of 
shoes have been sent. One third at least of the 
poor wretches is now barefoot, and in this con- 
dition obliged to do duty. This is shocking to 
humanity. It cannot be viewed in any milder 
light than black murder. The poor creatures is 
now (what's left alive) laying on the cold ground, 
in poor thin tents, and some none at all, and many 
down with the pleurisy. No barracks, no hos- 
pitals to go in. The barracks is at Saratoga. If 
you was here, your heart would melt. I paid a 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 5, p. 113. 
[ 51 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

visit to the sick yesterday in a small house called 
a hospital. The first object presented [to] my 
eyes, one man laying dead at the door ; the [n] 
inside two more laying dead, two living lying 
between them ; the living with the dead had so 
laid for four-and-twenty hours. I went no further; 
this was too much to see and to much to feel, for 
a heart with the least tincture of humanity." ^ 

To Ticonderoga the men had marched cheer- 
fully, a great part of them barefooted and bare- 
legged. In this condition they were forced to 
look forward to sentinel duty in the snow of a 
northern winter.^ A British officer, in a letter 
dated at York Island, October 30, 1776, states 
that "the Rebel army are in so wretched a con- 
dition as to clothing and accoutrements, that I 
believe no nation ever saw such a set of tatter- 
demalions. There are few coats among them 
but what are out at elbows and in a whole reg- 
iment there is scarce a pair of breeches. Judge 
then how they must be pinched by a winter 
campaign." ^ 

Such were the hardships endured by the army; 

^ Jos. Wood to Thomas Wharton, Jr. ; in American Archives 
v., vol. 3, col. 1358. 

'^Richard Stockton, in ibid., vol. 2, cols. 1274, 1275. 
^American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 1293. 
[ 52 1 



FOR tlie Fncoui|gement or thof:.' tliat fhall Mi(k 
in the Contin4|tai Army— The CONGRESS in 
. their Re[oWeH oipeptem6eri^i6y iSt/j, iqd, OS7oier 
Seby and Nove^^er 12/b, 1776, Engage, 

I / ^ i 

THAT 7-u)enl^ DoMi be given as a Pounty tffeach Non-Comtrtte.,,; ~- 
. . fioned OtfiCvra{id Pjvate Soldier who fliali Inlift tp ferve for the Term 
of Three Years. ,. . i 

That each^ Von-Comf.i^ned Officer 4nd private Soldier (half annually 
receive a Suit of Cloathi, c| cor.fift for the prefenc Year, of Two Linnen i 
Hun ing Shirrs, Two Fair oiOveralls, a Leathern or Wocikn VVaiflcoat with !, 
Sleeves, One Pair of BreechiaHat or Leather Cap, Twq Shirts, Two Fair " 
of Hofc, and Two Pair of »oes, amounting in the whole- to the Value of 
twenty Dellarj, or that Soifto be paid to each Soldier wh^ ^aif procure 
thofe Articles for himfelf, artq produces a. Certificate thereoffrbni the Captain' 
of ehe Company to whish hcbelongs, to the Pay-Msfterof the Regiment 

ThateachNon-CommifTiOKdOfflcer and private Soldier who f?i3ll Inlift 
and engage to continue in thaiScrvJcfe to the Clofe of the War^ or until dif- 
charged by CoNsagss, (haJi Kceive in Addition to thA,alx>vt Encoarkgc- 
tatnt. One Hundred Acr8s of Land, and if any are Slain by the Edc- 
,-tiy, the Reprefentatives of fu(^ Soldiers fhs'l be intitled to the aforefaid tiaii- 
jired Acres of Land. • | '-' 

And for their further Encouwigamsnt, the Stste of Mafsciu/et/i-Bay,hiSi 
• by aj^olve of November 29i^v&i engaged; 

- ,Thiit each Non-Commi«5oi"^'t5 OSicer^and prirafe "£oidler'Who fhall inlifV. 
into the CoBtinoijtal Army.^eiiJ^er-cluringthe War, of for the Term of Three 
5?ears«>«l Pift oflhe Qj^taofjMen afTigncd this State, the Sum ei't'ioef.iy 
Ptiivds on his- paffing Mullet, tne fSid twenty Pounds to-be g?td in Tfealur- 
cr'^ Notes oi- Ten Pounds ea8h,'^,jable*ta*the PofTeflbr in Four Years," with 
Intercft to be paid annually, « -the Rate of S/x«>ir Cm/, : .s 

In the Hcuft of R & PR gtS E. N T A r l^E S, i?w. 4,^'^fjC.^ ■ 
- THE foregoing Extrafts-.were Read and f^re/lto fae Printed, ' 
" -i. JAMES M'ARREN, Speaker. 



Lnli,-^uncir. I>ruiul>i<.lc. 

(Original owned by tlie Boston Public Library.) 



Maintaining the Forces 



disease and cold thinned the ranks that had borne 
the attack of British infantry. So great was the 
demand for men that not a itw deserted to reenhst, 
and the temptation increased with the duration 
of the war.-^ A punishment of a hundred lashes 
had little effect, and in 1778 a man was shot who 
had deserted and reenlisted for the bounties seven 
times.^ For him there was no semblance of ex- 
cuse, but for some who went home without leave 
a word in extenuation might be said. They re- 
ceived few of the blessings, usually, that the re- 
cruiting officer held before trusting eyes ; they 
lived for months without proper or even decent 
food and clothing, fighting (in some cases) for a 
country that had known them but a few years 
and against friends and neighbors of their youth.^ 
If they had been drafted or had been induced to 
sign enlistment papers when dazed by liquor, 
their consciences did not hold them to service in 
the army. Later on, an officer, after complaining 
that the troops had been for two years without 
clothes and pay, affirmed that there must have 

^ E. Wild's Diary ; in Massachusetts Historical Society Pro- 
ceedings, October, 1890, p. 93. 

2 Orderly book of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga, p. 9. 

^Colonel Richardson in September, 1775, spoke of the need 
of arms to equip "the new Irish settlers" in South Carolina. — 
Salley's Orangeburg County, S. C, p. 432. 

[ 53 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

been virtue in the army when under such cir- 
cumstances there was any army left. A sen- 
tence in his diary which refers to a practice 
not uncommon in the early years of the war 
is good enough to bear repeating: "This day 
one ot our soldiers which deserted some time 
ago deserted back again with a neiv suit of 
cloaths"'^ 

Weak as the Continental army was in the 
autumn of 1776, it undertook two important 
duties; part of the forces held the Hudson above 
New York to check any advance of the British 
toward Canada or New England ; another wing 
of the army kept to the banks of the Delaware to 
guard the highways to Pennsylvania and the south. 
On December 22d (just before the battle of Tren- 
ton was fought) the return of the army then en- 
camped on the banks of the Delaware gives a total 
of 10,106 men; of these 3,357 were sick, absent 
on duty or on furlough, making thirty-three per 
cent, ineffective.^ It was the current belief that 
affairs had come to a critical pass, requiring a suc- 
cessful battle to awaken enthusiasm and quicken 

^ W. McDowell's Journal ; in Pennsylvania Archives, second 
series, vol. 15, p, 321. See also Army Correspondence of 
Colonel John Laurens, p. i 39. 

^American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 1401. 

[ 54 ] 



Maintaining the Forces 



enlistments for the next campaign.^ Washington's 
capture of nearly the whole British outpost at 
Trenton on Christmas night accomplished what 
was needed, but in order to follow up the suc- 
cess he was driven to a fresh bounty of $10 to 
keep the discontented men together for another 
month. 

The year 1777, with its defeats at the Brandy- 
wine and at Germantown, brought little cheer to 
the main army until the news of Burgoyne's sur- 
render came in October. Throughout the summer 
Washington never had above 1 1,000 Continentals 
and 2,000 militia in the field at one time. At the 
close of July Congress abandoned the expensive 
and unsatisfactory system of appointing army 
officers as recruiting agents; the States were to be 
divided into districts, with a local officer in each 
district, who was to receive $8 for every man en- 
listed and $5 for each deserter secured.^ Washing- 
ton expressed approval of an annual draft of men 
to fill the regiments that became reduced by death, 
disease, or the withdrawal of those who could not 
be induced by a bounty of $25 to remain in the 
service beyond the term of enlistment.^ 

^American Archives, V., vol. 3, col. 1 5 14. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 6, p. 7. 

3 Ibid., vol. 6, p. 305. 

[ 55 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

At the beginning of autumn the army, number- 
ing some ten or eleven thousand men, marched 
through Front Street, Philadelphia, on the way to 
check the advance of General Howe. Alexander 
Graydon stood at the coffee-house corner and 
watched them pass, the Commander-in-chief and 
his men. They were, he says, indifferently dressed, 
but carried their well-burnished arms like good 
soldiers who might reasonably expect success in a 
contest with equal numbers. They were obliged 
to fall back a few days later before Knyphausen's 
advance over Brandywine Creek at Chadd's Ford 
and Cornwallis's flank attack by way of Birming- 
ham church, greatly outnumbered but not put to 
rout.^ General Howe occupied Philadelphia and 
thus achieved one object in the British plan of 
campaign. , While the moral effect of this move 
was considerable at the time, Philadelphia being 
the great port of trade of the middle colonies, and 
a centre for army supplies of all kinds, he had, 
however, done little harm to Washington, and he 
now found that he must divide his army in order 
to protect both Philadelphia and New York. To 
put down the rebellion of an agricultural people, 
scattered over a wide territory, by a garrison in 
each town would have required more soldiers than 

1 Graydon's Memoirs, p. 29I. 
[ 56 1 



Maintaining the Forces 



England possessed. The other movement of the 
year, Burgoyne's attempt to isolate New England 
by seizing Lake Champlain and the Hudson, 
which taken together formed a natural western 
barrier, ended in his capitulation, 

Washington looked forward to winter quarters 
where the men could be near enough to the scene 
of action to furnish comfort to supporters of the 
patriot cause, where they could be drilled by 
Baron Steuben, and could be so fed and protected 
from the weather that sickness and desertion would 
not destroy the army. It seemed necessary to be 
at least a day's march from the enemy to afford 
time for defensive measures or for retreat in case 
the British made a hostile move. He therefore 
withdrew up the eastern bank of the Schuylkill 
some miles to the northwest of Philadelphia, 
crossed the river on December 13th by two bridges, 
one old and insecure and another improvised 
from boats and fence-rails, and on the 19th went 
into camp at Valley Forge. By January 1st 
most of the troops were settled in huts, and they 
soon began to improve in discipline under the in- 
struction of Baron Steuben, who toiled with the 
zeal of "a lieutenant anxious for promotion."^ 

^ Army Correspondence of Colonel John Laurens (1867), 
pp. 90-97, 100, 152, 160, 169. 

[ 57 ] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

The sufferings of the Continentals at Valley Forge 
during the winter of 1777-78, without sufficient 
clothing, blankets, or shoes, and much of the time 
destitute of proper food, are described in a suc- 
ceeding chapter. 

An army of about 1 7,000 men had melted away, 
until now, in 1778, 5,000 ragged soldiers remained. 
A Tory writer reported in March that 1,134 de- 
serters had come into Philadelphia and taken 
the oath of allegiance. It is worthy of notice, 
in support of Washington's frequent request for 
recruits of American birth, that just three-fourths 
of these deserters were foreign born.^ The ef- 
fective force was further decreased by the per- 
nicious habit of employing privates as officers' 
servants. Steuben has mentioned as an illustra- 
tion of the system a certain company which had 
" twelve men present ; absent, one man as valet 
to the commissary, two hundred miles distant 
from the army, for eighteen months; one man 
valet to a quartermaster attached to the army of 
the north, for twelve months; four in the differ- 
ent hospitals for so many months ; two as driv- 
ers of carriages; and so many more as bakers, 
blacksmiths, carpenters, even as coal-porters, for 
years together." These men, once on the rolls, 

^Joseph Galloway. Stevens's Facsimiles, No. 2094. 
[ 58 j 



Maintaining the Forces 



were reported regularly as part of the effective 
force.^ 

With the opening of the spring campaign Con- 
gress called upon the States to maintain their 
quotas,^ and in May resolved to grant $80 at the 
end of the war to every non-commissioned officer 
and private who had enlisted or would enlist for 
or during the contest.^ In August it was reported 
that " a great spirit of inlisting " had taken place 
among the militia drafts."* A proposition to pay 
part of the usual bounty of $20 in specie instead 
of bills would have helped the movement along, 
but on a vote it was lost, and an appropriation of 
$120,000 in Continental money was made."^ The 

1 Kapp's Steuben, p. 116. Also Baron de Kalb's views; 
Stevens's Facsimiles, No. 761. 

2 See table, p. 48, note. Rhode Island was to furnish i bat- 
talion. New York 5, and Pennsylvania 10 ; South Carolina and 
Georgia were omitted. — ^Journals of Congress, February 26, 
1778. 

^ Ibid., May 15, 1778. 

^ No soldier in the infantry battalions could — by a resolve of 
August 31, 1778 — enlist outside the battalions credited to the 
State for which he had enlisted as a militiaman. 

5 The establishment of 1778 allowed to each battalion of in- 
fantry 477 privates with pay at $6^ per month ; artillery, 
336 matrosses at $8i/^ per month; cavalry, 324 dragoons, 
%^yi per month ; provost, 43 provosts or privates, $81^ per 
month ; three companies in the engineering department, each to 
have sixty privates at $8j^ per month (Journals of Congress 

[ 59 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

much -desired consummation of treaties with 
France was hailed with celebrations in the army, 
and the virtual victory at Monmouth following 
Clinton's evacuation of Philadelphia served in 
a sense to offset the loss of Savannah, which 
was not known in camp until the new year 
came in. 

The opening weeks of 1779 disclosed con- 
ditions that might well have discouraged Wash- 
ington himself Congress authorized him to 
offer a bounty not to exceed $200 (in ad- 
dition to the usual bounties of clothing, and, 
at the expiration of the war, of land and 
money) to be given to each man engaged for 
the war.^ Later, where the bounty offered by a 
State exceeded $200, this sum was ordered to be 
put to the State's credit for each recruit furnished, 
to prevent the jealousies that might otherwise 
arise from too great inequality in the amount of 

May 27, 1778). A regiment of infantry had i colonel (who 
was also a captain), i lieutenant-colonel (also captain), i major 
(also captain), 6 captains, paymaster, adjutant, quartermaster, 
I surgeon, i surgeon's mate, 8 lieutenants, 9 ensigns, i ser- 
geant-major, I quartermaster-sergeant, 27 sergeants, i captain- 
lieutenant (over the colonel's company), x drum-major, i fife- 
major, 18 drums and fifes, 27 corporals, 477 privates: in all 

585. 

^Journals of Congress, January 23, 1779. 

[ 60 ] 








mm^ 




'■■ " l^t^<S. ,1778. . . 







Paper currency-. 1770, 1778. 



Maintaining the Forces 



bounty to be had when the national and local 
bounties were combined.^ Washington already 
began to fear that the enlistments would prove a 
failure unless the State rivalry in offering large 
bounties was brought to an end. New Jersey 
offered $250 over and above the bounty voted by 
Congress; Georgia offered $300, and Virginia 
promised clothes, land, and $750 to recruits.^ 
Naturally these sums, in spite of the depreciation 
in paper bills, made the soldiers who had enlisted 
earlier to serve for the whole war uneasy and 
vexed that they had accepted a paltry $20. Con- 
gress perceived this and allowed $100 to each 
man who had enlisted for the war previous to 
January 23, 1779.^ 

" You may," wrote the Commander-in-chief in 
July, "form a pretty good judgment of my prospect 
of a brilliant campaign, and of the figure I shall 
cut in it, when I inform you, that, excepting about 
400 recruits from the State of Massachusetts (a 
portion of which I am told are children, hired at 
about 1500 dollars each for 9 months' service), I 
have had no reenforcements to this army since last 

1 Journals of Congress, March 9, 1779. There were to be 
eighty battalions of infantry. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 7, pp. 364—366. 
^Journals of Congress, June 22, 1779. 

[ 61 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

campaign." ^ Some months earlier the Baron de 
Kalb had said that so long as the substitutes hired 
by rich citizens for the militia could get enormous 
bounties for a " two months' walk " — as the short 
enlistment was called — there was no hope for the 
regular regiments.^ 

In October Washington's force engaged for the 
war amounted to 14,998 men; to these must be 
added 12,101 men engaged for short periods, 
making in all 27,099, of whom 410 were inva- 
lids;^ In the meantime the towns throughout 
the country were approaching the end of their re- 
sources in their ability to furnish recruits. Town 
meeting followed town meeting to fill quotas of 
men and provide beef, clothing, and fire-arms. 
Training-bands and alarm-lists were scrutinized 
for recruits, and at meetings attendance was se- 
cured by a threat to draft first from those who re- 
mained away from these deliberations.^ In Mas- 
sachusetts, which still furnished nearly a fifth of 
the infantry battalions, the towns finally were 
divided into as many classes as there were men to 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 7, p. 505. 
2 De Kalb to De Broglie, December, 1777 ; Stevens's Fac- 
similes, No. 761. 

3 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 8, p. ill. 
^Parmenter's Pelham, pp. 142-148. 
[ 62 ] 



Maintaining the Forces 



be raised, each class to furnish and pay for a man, 
or pay the average price paid for Continental sol- 
diers, with twenty-five per cent, added.^ Some- 
what earlier, in Connecticut, any two men were 
exempted from draft so long as they could keep 
a recruit in the field — a practice that led to the 
employment of negroes and lowered the grade of 
recruits.^ 

The success of the recruiting service varied ac- 
cording to local conditions, and particularly where 
the people were influenced by frequent reports 
from the army. Rivingtorfs Gazette^ April 17, 
1779, stated that the rebels, who were fed with 
putrid salt beef and wretched whiskey, were ready 
to desert from a service which they despised and 
detested; while the Neio Hampshire Gazette ten 
days later reported that there was a great eagerness 
to enlist, that nine-tenths of the southern forces, 
being pleased with their food and their superior 
clothing, had reenlisted. Nearly all newspaper 
statements of the time were more or less inaccu- 
rate and intemperate ; and the information made 
public by British and American editors, and par- 

1 Resolves General Court of Massachusetts, February 26, 
1781 ; Town Records Pelham, Brookline, etc. 

2 Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, August, 1862, 
p. 198. 

[63 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 



ticularly the loyalist editors, was colored beyond 
recognition. 

For several years Indians and Tories frofn the 
lake region in central New York had harried the 
frontier settlements in Washington's rear. The 
Indians kept under cultivation some 20,000 
acres of corn and thousands of fruit-trees, in- 
habiting the rich lands from Lake Ontario at the 
north to Tioga Point, the meeting-place of the 
Chemung River with the Susquehanna, just within 
the bounds of Pennsylvania, on the south. In 
the summer of 1779 General James Clinton started 
from Schenectady by way of Otsego Lake and its 
outlet the upper Susquehanna to meet General 
John Sullivan, who marched northward from 
Easton along the Lehigh River and the lower Sus- 
quehanna. They joined forces at Tioga Point, 
and late in August drove the British and their 
savage allies from their stronghold on the Che- 
mung, near the present city of Elmira. The dev- 
astation which followed put an end to the great 
Indian highway between Canada and the Chesa- 
peake, dispersed the enemy that menaced Wash- 
ington in the rear, and left him free to face Sir 
Henry Clinton's army.^ 

1 See Chapter IX. ; also W. E. Griffis in New England Mag- 
azine, December, 1900. 

[ 64 ] 



Maintaining the Forces 



A careful French resume of the situation con- 
cludes with the opinion that affairs were alarm- 
ing but not desperate in the autumn of 1779: 
that the country, like a convalescent, needed nour- 
ishment rather than medicine, and a careful nurse 
rather than a physician.^ 

The year 1 780, with the loss of Charleston, the 
defeat at Camden, and the treason of Arnold, 
seemed to portend surrender at last. But forces 
were at work that were to outweigh them all in 
the fortunes of war ; in France the colonies grew 
in favor, and the French fleet appeared upon the 
American coast ; in England, now at war with 
France and Spain, the King's policy was about 
to add Holland to the circle of her enemies; 
while in the colonies the Continentals, under the 
eye of that indefatigable disciplinarian, the Baron 
Steuben, grew into an army of hardy, patient, and 
obedient soldiers.^ There were 10,400 rank and 
file that spring on the North River to oppose a 
British force of 11,000. Washington asked for 
fifty regiments or 35,850 men.^ Congress had 

1 Stevens's Facsimiles, No. 1616. 

^Ibid., Nos. 1627, 1632. 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 8, p. 235; ibid., 
vol. 8, p. 487 ; Journals of Congress, October 3, 21, 1780 
(change in regiments). 

[ 65 ] 



'The Private Soldier JJnder Washington 

already lost much of the prestige which made its 
wish effective in 1775, and as it had ceased to 
exercise the right to issue paper money, it could 
" neither enlist, pay, nor feed a single soldier ; " 
the Commander was obliged to rely largely upon 
his own efforts to rouse the country.^ Had Con- 
gress supported with courage despotic laws similar 
to those enacted eighty-four years later by the 
Confederate Congress it is possible that the people 
would have held that the occasion justified the 
action. To enlarge its force in the field the 
Confederacy employed free negroes and slaves in 
every position at home and in camp where a 
white man could thereby be released for army 
duty. By an act of February 17, 1864, every 
white resident between the ages of seventeen and 
fifty became at its passage a part of the military 
service of the Confederate States until the end of 
the war. 

The condition of Washington's army m the 
autumn of 1780 was so disheartening that a hos- 
tile observer could hardly over-color the picture 
of ragged, half-fed battalions, thinned by deser- 
tion, disease, and expirations of terms of service. 
Benedict Arnold, the traitor of less than two 

1 Madison to Jefferson, May 6, 1780 ; in his Writings (Hunt), 
vol. I, p. 63. 

[ 66 ] 



Maintaining the Forces 



weeks' standing under His Majesty's protection, 
has described the army of 11,400 men, half of 
whom, the mihtia, would return to their homes 
on January 1st. These men, " illy clad, badly 
fed, and worse paid, having in general two or 
three years' pay due to them," were the result 
of an appeal for 35,000 soldiers who were to 
drive Sir Henry Clinton out of New York and 
end the war. The public debt, he added, amount- 
ed to 400,000,000 paper dollars ; and Congress, 
jealous of the army and powerless over the States, 
could do little. Provisions were of necessity 
taken from the people and this swelled the tide 
of discontent. Arnold's picture of the army was 
drawn from a knowledge of the facts scarcely 
inferior to Washington's own.-^ The mutiny of 
the Pennsylvania line at the beginning of the 
new year resulted naturally from these conditions. 
A plan for the reduction of the regular army 
after January 1, 1781, to four regiments of dra- 
goons or cavalry, four of artillery, forty-nine of 
infantry (with 612 men in each), exclusive of 
Colonel Hazen's regiment. Colonel Armand's 
partisan corps. Major Lee's corps, and one regi- 

^ Benedict Arnold's Present State of the American Rebel 
Army (Winnowings in American History ; Revolutionary nar- 
ratives. No. 5). 

[ 67] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

ment of artificers,* was approved by Congress in 
October, 1780; little was accomplished in this 
direction until near the end of the war. 

Morgan's victory over Tarleton at the Cow- 
pens in January, 1781, was followed by the de- 
feat of Greene at Guilford, Hobkirk's Hill, and 
Eutaw Springs, But these seemingly unfortu- 
nate incidents in Greene's masterly Southern 
Campaign were soon to be overshadowed by the 
siege of Lord Cornwallis's army at Yorktown, 

^Journals of Congress, October 3, 21, 1780. The quotas 
were : New Hampshire : two regiments of infantry. Massachu- 
setts : ten of infantry, one of artillery. Rhode Island : one of in- 
fantry. Connecticut : five of infantry, one of cavalry. New 
York : two of infantry, one of artillery. New Jersey : two of 
infantry. Pennsylvania : six of infantry, one of artillery, one of 
cavalry, one of artificers. Delaware : one of infantry. Mary- 
land : five of infantry. Virginia : eight of infantry, one of 
artillery, two of cavalry. North Carolina ; four of infantry. 
South Carolina : two of infantry. Georgia : one of infantry. 
Every recruit enlisted for the war was to receive a sum not ex- 
ceeding $50. All the foreigners in the service of the United 
States were brought together in Colonel Hazen's regiment. 
August 7, 1782, the Secretary of War was instructed by Con- 
gress to see that each regiment was completed to not less than 
500 rank and file, and that the reduction in the number of reg- 
iments ordered in 1780 was carried out. Such of the sixteen 
additional regiments as were not annexed to the line of their 
particular states and all separate light corps and the German bat- 
talion were to be struck from the establishment. 
[ 68 ] 



Maintaining the Forces 



and the surrender which came in October. The 
cessation of active hostilities was very welcome to 
America, although defensive measures were by- 
no means exhausted. Washington and Greene 
had come to know the strategic possibilities of 
the country which lies between the mountains 
and the Atlantic coast. The broad rivers that 
everywhere flow southerly and easterly to the sea 
formed barriers, and the long stretches of sparsely 
inhabited country seriously hindered the opera- 
tions of an invading commander who struck in- 
land for any distance from his ships. While the 
struggle was waged now in the eastern, now in the 
central, now in the southern colonies, great tracts 
of land could be cultivated in comparative peace, 
regardless of a depreciating currency, an anxious 
Congress, or a ragged army. The recruiting 
officer was the only reminder of strife that came 
into many a quiet cabin in the forest clearing.^ 
With the seed planted or the grain gathered 
men were ready to shoulder their muskets for a 
short campaign, just as the Scotch Highlanders 
waited for the autumn harvests before raiding the 
lowlands. 

In the spring of 1782 the British House of 
Commons declared that all who should advise 

^Channing's United States (New York, 1896), pp. 77-79. 
1 69 1 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

the further prosecution of offensive war in Amer- 
ica would be considered as enemies to his Maj- 
esty and the country. The Continental military 
establishment at this time was in the neighbor- 
hood of 35,000 men, with an effective French 
force of 4,000 troops. The British establishment, 
including detachments at Charleston, Savannah, 
Halifax, on the Penobscot and in Canada, with 
the militia at New York, was supposed to be 
about 26,000 men.^ The resignation of Lord 
North in March and the signing of preliminary 
articles between Great Britain and the United 
States in November prepared the way for a ces* 
sation of hostilities early in 1783. On April 19th 
peace was announced to the soldiers by Wash- 
ington. 

The days of trial were over for the army which, 
in the Commander's words, was of nearly eight 
years' standing. Six years they had spent in the 
field without any other shelter from the inclem- 
ency of the seasons than tents, or such houses as 
they could build for themselves without expense 
to the public. They had encountered hunger, 
cold, and nakedness. They had fought many 
battles and bled freely. They had lived without 
pay, and in consequence of it, officers as well as 

'Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 9, p. 468. 
[ 70 ] 



Maintaining the Forces 



men had subsisted upon their rations. They had 
often, very often, been reduced to the necessity 
of eating salt pork, or beef, not for a day or a 
week only, but for months together, without veg- 
etables or money to buy them.^ 

During these eight dark years the officers and 
men who served under Washington grew more 
and more to know that a great man led them. 
In correspondence, in journals, and in the conver- 
sation of visitors who had come from Europe, the 
Commander of the Continental Army was men- 
tioned with a regard rarely if ever before bestowed 
during life upon the central figure of a bitter war 
for independence. His letters were preserved by 
the families of British officers ; ^ and the British 
historian, John Richard Green, with rare compre- 
hension of his character, has said of him : " No 
nobler figure ever stood in the forefront of a na- 
tion's life. Washington was grave and courteous 
in address ; his manners were simple and unpre- 
tending; his silence and the serene calmness of 
his temper spoke of a perfect self-mastery. . . . 
It was only as the weary fight went on that the 
colonists discovered, however slowly and im- 

^ From Washington's words, in his Writings (Ford), vol. lo, 
p. 204. 

~De Fonblanque's Burgoyne (1876), p. 329, note. 

1 71 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

perfectly, the greatness of their leader, his clear 
judgment, his heroic endurance, his silence under 
difficulties, his calmness in the hour of danger or 
defeat, the patience with which he waited, the 
quickness and hardness with which he struck, the 
lofty and serene sense of duty that never swerved 
from its task through resentment or jealousy, that 
never through war or peace felt the touch of a 
meaner ambition, that knew no aim save that of 
guarding the freedom of his fellow-countrymen, 
and no personal longing save that of returning to 
his own fireside when their freedom was secured. 
It was almost unconsciously that men learned to 
cling to Washington with a trust and faith such 
as few other men have won, and to regard him 
with a reverence which still hushes us in pres- 
ence of his memory." ^ 

^Green's History of the English People (New York, i88o), 
vol. 4, pp. 254, 255 (Book IX., chapter ii.). 



[72 ] 



/ 



III 

Material Needs 

A COLUMN of infantry in a country high- 
way, giving a touch of color and Hfe to 
the landscape, might well fire the pulse 
of any lad; and at the opening of the Revolution 
the , glamour of military service, supplementing 
as it did the patriotic spirit, caused the volunteer 
army about Boston to increase in numbers from 
day to day, coming from the hills and plains, until 
the British looked out upon a besieging camp. 
But experience, as it ever does, cooled the pulse 
and cleared the brain ; then the country boy 
began to examine the soldier's knapsack and 
the size of his blanket.^ Washington shows in 
his Revolutionary correspondence that he knew 
these simple things, and when mutiny and de- 
sertion alarmed the colonies he sought the only 
permanent remedy — a greater degree of comfort 
for his men. 

^ Dr. A. Waldo's Diary; in Historical Magazine, May, 
i86i, p. 130. 

[ 73 ] 



"The Private Soldier Under Washington 

The soldier's bed was often under the stars of 
heaven or the clouds of a threatening storm. If 
he was fortunate enough to possess a tent he 
fared better, but did not always escape the rain. 
The conversation recorded by a Connecticut sur- 
geon expresses a condition which was far too 
frequent. 

" Good - morning, brother soldier, how are 
you?" 

" All wet, I thank 'e," says the other ; " hope 
you are so."^ 

When the sun reappeared after a storm, tents 
were struck for a few hours to let the ground dry, 
and were pitched again at nightfall.^ Few troops 
had suitable covering at the camp in Cambridge 
in 1 775, except the troops from Rhode Island ; 
their tents were, according to Rev. Mr. Emerson, 
"in the most exact English style." ^ For the most 
part the shelters were as dissimilar in form as the 
men were in dress, and each one was somewhat of 
an index to the character of its owner; some were 
of boards, and others of sail-cloth, some a combi- 

^ Dr. A. Waldo's Diary ; in Historical Magazine, May, 
1861, p. 132. 

^ Orderly book, Pennsylvania State Regiment, Pennsylvania 
Magazine, January, 1899, p. 477. 

^Washington's Writings (Sparks), vol. 3, p. 491. MS. 
letter quoted. 

[74] 



Material Needs 



nation of both, while stones, brush, and turf were 
forced into service.^ 

Huts built of fence-rails, sod, and straw could 
not be moved to dry or clear the ground, but 
they were in winter warmer than tents.^ Boards 
were used for floors when they were to be had, 
and also for the construction of the huts if there 
was a saw-mill near the camp; otherwise logs 
did duty, as in pioneer days, with the interstices 
filled with clay, moss, or straw.^ Each hut was 
supposed to have two windows; it could be built 
in about two weeks, and the company officers not 
infrequently lent a hand."* In rude cabins like 
these, arranged in lines which extended back 
from the Schuylkill about one and a half miles,^ 
the greater part of Washington's army passed 
the winter months at Valley Forge, beset from 

1 Washington's Writings (Sparks), vol. 3, p. 492. In 
October, 1776, "country linen fit for tents," a yard wide, 
sold for three shillings and sixpence a yard. Twenty-one and 
a half yards were required to make a tent for six men. — 
American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 988. 

^ Ibid., vol. 2, col. 610. 

^T. Anburey's Travels, vol. 2, p. 294. 

^Washington's Revolutionary Orders (Whiting), p. 86, 
May 14, 1778. Dr. Waldo's Diary, Historical Magazine, 
May, 1 86 1, p. 133. 

^ T. Blake's Journal, in Kidder's First New Hampshire Reg- 
iment, p. 40. 

[ 75 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

without by sleet and wind, from within by heat 
and smoke, until the eyes of the men smarted 
almost beyond endurance.^ 

The situation of the camp had much to do 
with the health and comfort of the men. Five 
sarcastic reasons for the selection of Valley Forge 
as a place in which to pass the winter of 1777- 
78 are worthy of record : 

1st. There is plenty of wood & water, 
idly. There are but few families for the soldiery to 
steal from — tho' far be it from a soldier to steal — 

1 The following lines, written by Dr. Waldo at Valley Forge, 
April 26, 1778, describe a rather better hut than those used by 
the privates : 

Of pondrous logs 
Whose bulk disdains the winds or fogs 
The sides and ends are fitly raised 
And by dove-tail each corner's brac'd : 
Athwart the roof, young saplings lie 
Which fire and smoke has now made dry — 
Next, straw wraps o'er the tender pole, 
Next earth, then splints o'erlay the whole ; 
Although it leaks when show'rs are o'er. 
It did not leak two hours before. 
Two chimneys plac'd at op' site angles 
Keep smoke from causing oaths and wrangles. 

Three windows, placed all in sight. 
Through oiled paper give us light ; 
One door, on wooden hinges hung. 
Lets in the friend, or sickly throng. 
— Historical Magazine, September, 1863, p. 270. 
[ 76 ] 



Material Needs 



[3dly not given.] 

4ly. There are warm sides of hills to erect huts on. 

5ly. They will be heavenly minded like Jonah 
when in the belly of a great Fish. 

61y. They will not become home sick as is some- 
times the case when men live in the open world 
— since the reflections which must naturally 
arise from their present habitation, will lead 
them to the more noble thoughts of employing 
their leisure hours in filling their knapsacks with 
such materials as may be necessary on the Jor- 
ney to another Home.^ 

Dressing and the morning meal were events 
which varied in importance, for at times there 
was little to wear and less to eat. In the cam- 
paign about Whitemarsh, in December, 1777, a 
soldier remarked : " We had no tents, nor ani- 
thing to Cook our Provisions in, and that was 
Prity Poor, for beef was very leen and no salt, 
nor any way to Cook it but to throw it on the 
Coles and brile it; and the warter we had to 
Drink and to mix our flower with was out of a 
brook that run along by the Camps, and so many 
a dippin and washin [in] it which maid it very 
Dirty and muddy." ^ 

1 Dr. Waldo's Diary, Historical Magazine, May, 1861, p. 

131- 

2 Elijah Fisher's Journal, p. 7. 

[ 77 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

The cooking was often done by soldiers from 
each company, for men who had skill in any 
direction were soon called upon to perform 
special service. "Nothing remarkable this day," 
a private relates, " onely I was chose cook for 
our room consisting of 12 men, and a hard 
game too." ^ Sometimes there were no more 
than two kettles in which to prepare the meals 
for a company ; the meat was broiled over the 
fire, spitted on a bayonet, and the bread was 
baked in the hot ashes.^ The men counted 
themselves fortunate if they could dine in peace ; 
at the siege of Boston a man was quietly eating 
his bread and milk when a cannon-ball struck 
near by and so covered the bowl with flying dirt 
that he could eat no more.^ 

The following daily allowance or ration was 
authorized by the third Provincial Congress, 
June lo, 1775: 

1. One pound of bread. 

2. Half a pound of beef and half a pound of pork ; 
and if pork cannot be had, one pound and a 

^ Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, p. 79 (references 
are to that by S. Haws). 

2 E. Wild's Journal, p. 29 ; same in Massachusetts Historical 
Society Proceedings, October, 1890, p. 104. 

^ Rev. B. Boardman's Diary, Massachusetts Historical So- 
ciety Proceedings, May, 1892, p. 406. 

[ 78 ] 



Material Needs 



quarter of beef; and one day in. seven they shall 
have one pound and one quarter of salt fish, in- 
stead of one day's allowance of meat. 

3. One pint of milk, or, if milk cannot be had, 
one gill of rice. 

4. One quart of good spruce or malt beer. 

5. One gill of peas or beans, or other sauce equiv- 
alent. 

6. Six ounces of good butter per week. 

7. One pound of good common soap for six men 
per week. 

8. Half a pint of vinegar per week per man, if it 
can be had.^ 

During the siege of Boston all allowances for 
the week were delivered on Wednesday unless 

^Journals of Each Provincial Congress (Lincoln), pp. 317, 
318. In August, 1775, each soldier was granted i pound 
of fresh beef or 3^ pound of pork, or i pound of salt fish 
per diem ; i pound of bread or flour per diem ; 3 pints of 
peas or beans per week, or vegetables equivalent at 5 shillings 
sterling per bushel for peas or beans ; i pint of milk per diem 
per man, when to be had ; ^2 pint of rice, or i pint of Indian 
meal, per man per week ; i quart of spruce beer per man per 
diem, or 9 gallons of molasses per company of 1 00 men ; 3 
pounds of candles to 100 men per week, for guards, etc.; 24 
pounds of soft or 8 pounds of hard soap for 100 men per week ; 
I ration of salt, i ration of fresh meat, and 2 rations of bread, 
to be delivered Monday morning ; Wednesday morning the same ; 
Friday morning the same, and i ration of salt fish. Substantially 
the same ration was approved by Congress November 4, 1775, 
but with ♦• or cider " after the word " beer." 

[ 79 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

the number of regiments made it necessary to 
serve a part of the army on other days.^ In the 
winter months corned beef and pork were given 
out four days a week, a pound and a half of the 
former and eighteen ounces of the latter per diem. 
Onions at two and eightpence a bushel and po- 
tatoes or turnips at one and fourpence a bushel 
might be substituted for peas or beans.^ 

The ration authorized by Washington at Valley 
Forge in the spring of 1778 called for 1 ^ pounds 
of flour or bread, 1 pound of beef or fish, or ^ 
pound of pork, and 1 gill of whiskey or spirits; 
or 1 ^ pounds of flour, yi pound of pork or 
bacon, ^ pint of peas or beans, and 1 gill of 

1 Colonel William Henshaw's Orderly Book, August 8, 1775, 
p. 66. The ration in force at the outbreak of the Spanish- 
American war of 1898 was : i i^ pounds of beef or ^ pound 
of pork, 18 ounces of bread or flour, -^^ pound of coffee, -^^^ 
pound of sugar, I pound of vegetables ; 2 quarts of salt, 4 quarts 
of vinegar, 4 ounces of pepper, 4 pounds of soap, i y^ pounds 
of candles, to 100 rations. An allowance at the rate of 60 
cents per day per man was made for special food for the sick. 
In Cuba, however, the sick were fortunate if they received the 
army ration, when their comrades lived on hard bread, poor 
beef, coffee, sugar, and an occasional tomato. — Commissary- 
General of Subsistence, Report for year ending June 30, 1898, 
PP- 7» 25-32. 

2 Washington's Orders, December 24, 1775 ; also Barriger's 
Legislative History of Subsistence Department, second edition, 
p. 8. 

[ 80 ] 



Material Needs 



whiskey or spirits. These amounts were varied 
according to the state of the stores in camp.^ 

Washington, writing to the president of Con- 
gress, June 28, 1 776, estimated the cost of a ration 
at eightpence York currency, or a trifle more.^ 
In the report of the committee on the commissary 
department, agreed to by Congress June 10, 1777, 
a ration was to be considered as worth ten nine- 
tieths of a dollar, or a little over eleven cents.^ 
When the army was in camp a market was es- 
tablished, where farmers were allowed to offer 
their produce for sale ; and one suttling booth was 
permitted within each brigade's limits where 
liquor might be sold at fixed prices.^ Milk was 
brought in from the country for the sick whenever 
it could be had, but the exorbitant sums asked by 
farmers were a frequent source of vexation and 
privation. At Peekskill General Putnam in 1777 
fixed the prices of provisions, and made the 
penalty for buying articles at prices above those 

1 Washington's Revolutionary Orders (Whiting, 1844), 
p. 63. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 185. The 
Virginia Committee of Safety in 1776 considered their ration of 
bacon, pork or beef, with flour or meal, and salt, worth "jy^d. 
— Virginia Calendar of State Papers, vol. 8, p. 84. 

3 Barriger's Legisladve History, second edition, p. 17. 

* Washington's Revolutionary Orders (Whidng), p. 62. 
[ 81 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

authorized, the forfeiture of the produce or the 
value in money. Later, when milk could not be 
obtained at sixpence a quart, an officer and thirty 
men were detailed from each regiment to collect 
cows sufficient in number to supply the needs of 
the army, and to care tor them until the owners 
would agree to the terms fixed by the general.^ 

The army often suffered from the scarcity of 
vegetables because perishable food could not be 
carried as readily as beef In Sullivan's cam- 
paign against the Six Nations of Indians the men 
fared well ; nuts and melons are mentioned in 
many diaries, and also corn or maize, which was 
ripe when the invading columns reached the first 
Indian villages. After corn became too old to 
boil or roast it was converted into meal; tin 
kettles, found in the red men's huts, were perfo- 
rated and used to grate the kernels, and every 
fourth man not on guard, it is said, sat up at night 
to play the part of miller. This meal was mixed 
with hot pumpkin or boiled squash, and kneaded 

^ Putnam's Orders, August 8, 13, 1777. The prices were : 
Butter 2s. per pound ; mutton and lamb, 8d. ; veal 6d.; milk, 
6d. per quart ; potatoes 6s. per bushel ; squashes, is. per 
peck ; beans or peas in pod, is. 6d. per peck ; cucumbers, is. 
per dozen ; pig for roasting, 1 s. per pound ; turnips, carrots, 
and beets, 6s. per bushel. New York money. September 3 ; 
cider, 6d. York or 4d. lawful money per quart. 
[ 82 ] 



i 



Material Needs 



into cakes which were baked in the coals,^ Food 
of this kind was of great importance in prevent- 
ing the diseases which arise from a steady diet of 
meat. So great occasionally was the need of vege- 
tables that a commander felt justified in ordering 
each regiment to prepare ground and plant seed, 
on the chance that head-quarters would not be 
moved before the time of harvest.^ Congress, 
meanwhile, urged the colonies to encourage agri- 
cultural societies. ^ 

When provisions were scarce the allowance per 
man was reduced sometimes to ^2 pound of flour 
a day, ^ pound of beef, with 5 gills of salt to 
100 pounds of beef.^ At times the soldiers had 
no vinegar, at other times no vegetables or bread. 
In the midst of distracting quarrels among jealous 
officers, Washington sent out appeals for aid, 
writing: "Our soldiers the greatest part of last 
campaign, and the whole of this, have scarcely 
tasted any kind of vegetables ; had but little salt 

1 Nathan Davis's History, Historical Magazine, April, 1868, 
p. 203. 

2 Putnam's General Orders, August 25, 1777, p. 62 ; also 
American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 1584. 

^ Journals of Congress, March 21, 1776. 

^ Dr. Jabez Campfield's Diary, p. 133; also Orderly Book 
of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga and Mt. Independence 
(Albany, 1859), p. 132. 

[ 83 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

and vinegar, which would have been a tolerable 
substitute for vegetables ; have been in a great 
measure strangers to, neither have they been pro- 
vided with, proper drink. Beer or cyder seldom 
comes within the verge of the camp, and rum in 
much too small quantities. Thus, to devouring 
large quantities of animal food, untemper'd by 
vegetables or vinegar, or by any kind of drink 
but water, and eating indifferent bread . 
are to be ascribed the many putrid diseases inci- 
dent to the army."^ In the winter of 1779 and 
1780 the army was sometimes for five or six days 
without bread, often as long without meat, and 
once or twice two or three days without either.^ 

Men in the Arnold expedition against Quebec, 
many a night, lay down without food. In Cap- 
tain Goodrich's company several became very 
weak from hunger, and at last Captain Dearborn 
gave them his pet dog. The soldiers carried the 
poor creature away and ate every part of his flesh, 
" not excepting his entrails." Two other dogs 
were eaten the same day.^ 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 5, p. 495, 

2 Washington at Morristown; his Writings (Ford), vol. 8, 
p. 1 86. 

3 Dearborn to Rev. W. Allen ; note to J. Melvin's Journal, 
October 3 I, 1775 (New York, 1857), p. 14; (1864) p. 30. 

[ 84 ] 




ff^jlerlst 



^".'/. 



Gentltmev, 



IN Obedience to the OrJer of Confers wc have proportioned Thlrtecti Tlioufand 
Coats (in all the Towns «nd Diftrifls in this Colony, excepting Boflon and CharlcUnwn ; 
and IfTve inclofed you the Ptoporilon, with their Rcfolvcs, «nd a Simple a? % DIrcftion to 
yoo'lioili as to the Colour indQiiality of the Cloth which (hall bie Minufjciurcd by you.aod 
of ihc(^i»liiy of the impbrtedCloiKs oi which theCoats (hall be inadc : We are to afliirc you 
that the Coats yuu fiipply fljall be delivered to the Men of your Town fo far as Gtcumlljn- 
rcs nil! i^nSt. 

\Vc Src, Gcntletnet), rorpeOfuDy, 

your mofl humble Servants, 

DAVID CMEEVER, Chairmn. 



P. S A large Number of Shirte, Stoclclng? and Snmmcr Breeches ar«want'd imme- 
^atcly fof'theUfe of thcArmy, you arc therefore carncftly reqncllcJ, as yoUiValuc the Lives 
»nd Health of yolr Countrymen, tp Curnirti thi< Committee a> foon as podibic. with a \-.:qc 
Number of the fald Ariicicj, not lefs thin tivo Shirts, two pair of Stockings and tw.i p.nr r.t" 
Summer Bricchcs to each Coat, apportioned as the Share of your Town odd (end liicni o-; 



foon as procured o Mr. William Hunt, at WaieHMm— We (hall be ready to Order P<> 
for the (j;iie a: fbio as receiv'd, according to the Prices which yon fhall'ceafy, re 
your judgment 10 prevent Iftlpe-fitionsOpon the Soldiers. ,**- js*, f 



>■'"£ "" 



►^Vv ... 




Call for coats, -Imwiiig a --amiilc <A the lawn-colored fclt-cl(Uli desired. 
These broadsides are rarely found with the cloth still attached. 

(Ori,a;inal owned by the RosMn Public I>ibrary.) 



^ 



Material Needs 



A story is told of two soldiers in another cam- 
paign who, being out of provisions, put a stone in 
their camp-kettle when a certain Colonel Winds 
was expected. The colonel soon stopped before 
their fire and inquired: "Well men, anything ^o 
eat *? " " Not much," they replied, 

" What have you in that kettle ? " 

"A stone. Colonel, for they say there is some 
strength in stones, if you can only get it out." 

This guileless conversation had the desired ef- 
fect, for the officer declared that they must have 
something better to eat. 

In times of distress it was vexing to find that 
the ^wagon-drivers had ruined the pork by drawing 
out the brine to lighten the load ; ^ or to see a 
clumsy fellow endeavoring to guide through the 
marshy road four or five horses attached to a 
wagon from which barrels of flour and other 
perishable provisions tumbled into the mud.^ At 
Harlem Heights, soon after the battle of Long 
Island, the general saw about the camp large 
pieces of fine beef left untouched to putrefy in 
the sun.^ 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 125. 
2 Dr. J. Campfield's Diary, p. 133. 

2 General orders, September 28, 1776. American Archives 
v., vol. 2, col. 605. 

[ 85 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

The food was frequently poorly cooked from a 
scarcity of wood for the fires, and the few trees 
near a camp were the source of angry disputes. 
" I thought," said Washington one day, " that 
different regiments were upon the point of cut- 
ting each others' throats for a few standing lo- 
custs near their encampments, to dress their 
victuals with." ^ The quartermaster-general was 
instructed to investigate complaints regarding 
food and to punish careless cooks and bakers.^ In 
Wayne's command each regiment or corps had 
an officer appointed weekly whose duty it was to 
visit the kitchen or place for cooking in every 
company, to see that the work was properly 
done, and that meat was boiled, not fried. It 
was recommended that flour be drawn from the 
stores two days in each week, so that small 
dumplings could be made for the soup.^ When 
the kitchen had no roof but the sky the soup 
was often too thoroughly permeated with burnt 
leaves and dirt to be palatable.^ Better cooking, 
especially baking, became a pressing necessity ; 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 195. 
^ Colonel William Henshaw's Orderly Book, p. 4.4.. 
^ Orderly Book of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga, p. 
126. 

4 Dr. A. Waldo's Diary, Historical Magazine, May, 1861, 



p. 131' 



[ 86 ] 



Material Needs 



finally all bakers were placed under a director, 
without whose license no baker could work for 
the army.^ A year later a company of bakers 
was authorized, to consist of seventy-five men 
and a director who was to receive $50 a month 
and three rations a day.^ 

The beef was poor all through the winter of 
1777-78, so lean and thin that it became a 
matter of jest. A butcher who wore white but- 
tons on the knees of his breeches was seen bear- 
ing a quarter of beef into camp. 

" There, Tom," cried a soldier, " is some more 
of our fat beef. By my soul, I can see the butch- 
er's breeches buttons through it."^ It is not 
strange that the doctor who records this conver- 
sation was fervently grateful for a good stomach 
that he might endure " fire-cake " and water for 
breakfast, with water and fire-cake for dinner. 
At evening the cry could be heard along the 
line of soldiers' huts at Valley Forge, " No meat, 
no meat." That the men under these conditions 
still showed " a spirit of alacrity and content- 
ment " was marvellous. Were soldiers to have 

' Journals of Congress, May 3, 1777. 
"^ Ibid., February 27, 1778. 

^Dr. Waldo's Diary, Historical Magazine, May, 186 1, p. 
134- 

[ 87] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

plenty of food and rum, wrote Dr. Waldo, " I 
believe they would storm Tophet." ^ 

The fare of the enemy was not always better 
than that of the Continental soldiers, if confidence 
may be placed in the remark of a diarist that bis- 
cuit taken from the British regulars were hard 
enough for flints.^ 

The question of a sufficient supply of good 
food was of the first importance, and was seem- 
ingly as little understood by politicians of the 
day, as was the effect of clothing on enlistments, 
or of enlistment for short periods on the success 
of a campaign. Washington estimated that 30,- 
000 men would require for twelve months at 
least 200,000 barrels of flour and 40,000,000 
pounds of meat.^ To obtain these supplies each 
year was one of the great tasks imposed upon 
the Commander-in-chief, and had confidence in 
Washington not grown from year to year and 
made his appeals effective, the Revolutionary 
War must have failed. To prevent the entire 
dissolution of the small permanent force which 
was deemed necessary during the winter months 

^Dr. Waldo's Diary, Historical Magazine, May, l86i, 
p. 130. 

2 Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, p. 53. 

3 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 8, p. 225. 

[ 88 ] 



Material Needs 



of inactivity, food had to be saved for the sup- 
port of these men that should have been avail- 
able to maintain the militia when called upon 
for important enterprises.^ 

The method adopted to obtain supplies was 
simple in theory; the amount of flour, meat, and 
other necessities to be procured was apportioned 
to the various colonies to be collected, trans- 
ported, and deposited at such places within the 
respective colonies or States as the Commander- 
in-chief might from time to time designate.^ 
The same lack of a central authority strong 
enough to use force, which made it next to 
impossible to collect clothing, draft men, raise 
money, or punish deserters, played havoc with 
the commissary department. But when Wash- 
ington in his vigorous, earnest appeals stirred 
the people near at hand they never failed him. 
The crises were always safely passed, and the 
war went on to the end. 

Next in value to good food may be placed 
clothing, upon which depended largely the 
health, degree of cleanliness, and soldierly pride 
of the army. Frequent wars throughout the col- 
onies from the earliest times had fostered the 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 9, p. 45. 
2 Sparks in Washington's Writings (1834), vol. 6, p. 482, 
[ 89 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

military spirit along the Atlantic coast line and 
the inland frontier towns. At the outbreak of the 
Revolution militia and independent companies 
were to be found in all the colonies, and styles 
of uniform were almost as numerous as company 
organizations. From the simple dress of the 
New England alarm-list companies to the elab- 
orate costumes of the private corps in New York, 
Philadelphia, or Virginia was a long step ; and 
thus it happened that the levies raised from time 
to time on short enlistments to reenforce the 
Continental army formed a motley gathering. 
In the ranks at the siege of Boston were men 
dressed as savages,^ as backwoodsmen, and some 
with uniforms not unlike those of the British 
regulars.^ The general hue of the ranks, how- 
ever, not only in the campaign before Boston 
but through much the larger part of the war, was 
sombre, and can best be indicated by saying that 
the browns and greens predominated.^ Congress 
seems to have recognized this in an order to the 
commissioners at the Court of France in 1777 to 

^ American Archives IV., vol. 3, col. 2. 

2 A little later confusion arose from the similarity of the cloaks 
of the Connecticut light horse to those of the enemy. — Waldo's 
Diary, Historical Magazine, June, 1861, p. 169. 

3 Historical Magazine, vol. 4, p. 353 (December, i860) ; 
also Magazine of American History, vol. 1, p. 461. 

[ 90] 



Material Needs 



send uniforms of green, blue, and brown colors.^ 
The popular "blue and buff" were not worn by 
the Continental rank and file from New England 
or the South, and the New York and New Jer- 
sey troops, for whom the combination was des- 
ignated between 1779 and 1782 were, much of 
the time, destitute of cloth of the proper colors. 

During the opening months of the Revolu- 
tion the troops that had no distinctive uniform 
were, as far as possible, clothed as Washington 
suggested^ in a hunting shirt (a long loose coat), 
and in long breeches to which were attached 
gaiters or small - clothes buttoned at the sides 
and held down by straps under the shoes. The 
gaiters or leggings were often made of tow cloth 
which had been ^steeped in a tan vat until it be- 
came the color of a dry leaf This uniform was 
sometimes called the rifle dress.'^ There were 
ruffles of the same material around the neck and 
on the bottom of the coat, on the shoulders, at 
the elbows, and about the wrists. The hat was 
round and dark, with a broad brim turned up in 
three places, in one of which there was usually a 

1 Journals of Congress, February 5, 1777. 

2 Magazine of American History, vol. i, p. 60, p. 461 et 
seq., a valuable review of the subject by Professor A. B. 
Gardner of West Point. 



[ 91 ] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

cockade of some color or a sprig of green. A 
white belt over the left shoulder held the car- 
touch-box. A black cloth or stock went about 
the neck, and the hair was bound in a cue at the 
back.-^ 

This costume was, in the minds of the British, 
associated with a skilful marksman, and Wash- 
ington in the summer of 1776 urged its impor- 
tance in these words : " It is a dress which is 
justly supposed to carry no small terror to the 
enemy, who think every such person a complete 
marksman."^ At Bunker Hill a rifleman, stand- 
ing upon the earthworks, was noticed by an 
Englishman to have shot as many as twenty of 
Howe's officers before he fell,^ and in the Sara- 
toga campaign, Anburey, watching the effect of 
their fire, attributed to the Americans a love of 
killing,^ The British had reason, therefore, to 
fear the rifleman's dress. 

The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts re- 
solved July 5, 1775, to provide 13,000 coats, 
faced with the material of the coat, without 

* See also Uniforms of the Army of the United States from 
1774 to 1889, pp. 1-3. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 297. Orderly 
Book, July 24, I 776. 

■^ Trevelyan's American Revolution, part i, p. 328. 

''Anburey's Travels, vol. i, p. 331. 
[92 ] 



Material Needs 



lapels, short and with small folds, each regiment 
to have its number on the pewter buttons.^ The 
general orders from head-quarters at Cambridge, 
July 24, 1775, recommended Indian leggings 
instead of stockings, as Washington hoped to 
obtain from the Continental Congress a hunting 
shirt for each man.* Leggings were also warmer 
than stockings, more lasting, and could be had 
in uniform color,^ Congress, on November 4, 
1775, resolved to provide clothing for the army, 
to be paid for by stoppages out of the soldiers' 
wages. At the same time it was ordered that as 
much as possible the cloth be dyed brown, and 
the distinction in regiment be indicated by the 
color of the facing,^ It will be noticed that 
there was little attempt to introduce bright col- 
ors, which were less serviceable and less easy 
to obtain. 

^American Archives IV., vol. 2, col. i486. 

"^ Ibid., vol. 3, col. 248. 

3 Colonel William Henshaw's Orderly Book, p. 65. 

^ Again, having in mind the necessity of providing "the 
soldiers of the United Colonies " with clothing and blankets. 
Congress resolved, June 19, 1776, to recommend to the colonial 
assemblies and conventions that they cause to be made for 
each soldier a suit of clothes, the waistcoat and breeches to be 
of deer leather if to be had on reasonable terms, a blanket, felt 
hat, two shirts, two pair of hose, and two pair of shoes, 

[93] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

In the campaign about New York in 1776 
many soldiers had no uniforms, and these men 
were provided with hunting shirts.^ In October, 
1776, Congress voted to give annually to each 
soldier who would enlist for the war a suit of 
cloths, to consist that year of two linen hunting 
shirts, two pair of overalls, a leathern or woollen 
waistcoat with sleeves, one pair of breeches, a 
hat or leather cap, two shirts, two pair of hose, 
and two pair of shoes.^ 

Writing to Governor Trumbull in January, 
1778, Washington gave his opinion on a service- 
able form of clothing, and added a word as to the 
value of trousers, now so universally adopted : 
" I would recommend a garment of the pattern 
of the sailors for jacket. This sets close to the 
body, and by buttoning double over the breast 
adds much to the warmth of the soldier. There 
may be a small cape and cuff of a different color 
to distinguish the corps. ... As the overall 
is much preferable to breeches, I would recom- 
mend as many of them as possible." ^ The differ- 

^ American Archives IV., vol. 6, col. 426. 

2 Journals of Congress, October 8, 1776. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 6, p. 288. In Gen- 
eral Sullivan's expedition in 1779 against the Six Nations in 
Western New York and PennsyK^ania each man wore a short 

[ 94 ] 



Material Needs 



ence desirable in winter and in summer is shown 
in the following letter : 

" In June should be given a waistcoat with 
sleeves, flannel, if to be had, two pair of linnen 
overalls, one shirt, a black stock of hair or leather, 
a small round hat bound and a pair of shoes. In 
January, a waistcoat to be worn over the former, 
close in the skirts and double breasted, resem- 
bling a sailor's — , to have a collar and cuff of a 
different color, in order to distinguish the regi- 
ment, a pair of breeches, woolen overalls, yarn 
stockings, shirt, woolen cap, and a blanket when 
really necessary. Watch coats ought if possible 
to be provided for sentinels." ^ 

Trousers or overalls were more and more rec- 
ognized as necessary, and Congress by a resolu- 
tion of March 23, 1779, directed Washington 
to fix and prescribe a uniform for the soldiers, 
being governed by the supply, " woolen over- 
alls for winter and linen for summer to be sub- 
stituted for the breeches." The adoption of blue 
coats followed in the fall; for in general orders 
dated at Moore's house, October 2, 1779, the 

rifle frock, a vest, trousers of tow, shoes, stockings, and carried 
a blanket and an extra shirt. — Nathan Davis's History, Histor- 
ical Magazine, April, 1868, p. 204. 

1 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 6, p. 330. 

[ 95 ] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

Commander ordered that the coats of the infantry 
be blue with white linings and buttons. The 
New England troops were to be distinguished by 
white facings, those of New York and New Jer- 
sey by buff facings, those of Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, and Virginia by facings of red, 
and the troops of the Carolinas and Georgia by 
blue, with buttonholes edged with white tape or 
lace. The artillery coats were to be faced and lined 
with scarlet ; they were to be edged with tape, as 
well as the buttonholes, and the buttons and hat- 
bands were to be of yellow. Finally, the light 
dragoons or cavalry were to be distinguished by 
blue coats, with white facing, linings, and buttons. 

It will be noticed that "blue and buff" had no 
standing in eleven of the thirteen States, although 
blue now became the military color of the United 
States.^ 

Signs of merit, common to all parts of the 
country, were adopted toward the close of the 
war. In August, 1782, Washington directed 
that a non-commissioned officer or a private 
who had served honorably for more than three 
uninterrupted years should be permitted to wear 
upon the left sleeve of the uniform coats a narrow 
angular piece of cloth of the color of the regi- 

^ Magazine of American History, vol. i, p. 477. 
[ 96] 



Material Needs 



mental facing. For six years of service a parallel 
strip might be added. Unusually meritorious 
action earned for the soldier a purple heart of silk 
or cloth edged with lace or binding, to be worn 
on the facing over the left breast.^ 

The uniforms of all the infantry and cavalry 
were later ordered to be blue, faced with red and 
lined with white — the buttons also to be white. 
This order, from the scarcity of scarlet cloth, did 
not prove effective until the war closed.^ 

The Revolution quickened the production of 
cloth (duck, Russia sheeting, tow-cloth, osna- 
burgs, ticklenburgs),^ as it did that of shoes, gun- 
powder, and firearms. Throughout the country 
towns women carded and spun the wool and flax 
which their husbands provided, and the cotton 
which came from the West Indies ; then they 
themselves, or itinerant weavers, wove the fiannel, 
linen, and corduroy. In New England they 
usually received — but values are not easy to set 
down — five or six pence a skein of fifteen knots 
(about a yard and a half), and their day's work 
of from two to five skeins brought the value of 

'Washington's Revolutionary Orders (Whiting), pp. 220— 
231. 

^General Orders, Nevvburgh, December 6, 1782, February 
24, March 3, 1783. 

^Mentioned in a vote of Congress, July 19, 1775. 

[97] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

five or ten pounds of beef, or, to state it again, 
one or two good dinners at the tavern.^ Prices 
in Virginia in 1776 varied greatly. John Har- 
rower, a Scot, mentions in his diary a payment 
of five shillings a pound for spun cotton, to run 
eight yards per pound, or about seven pence a 
yard.^ Weaving brought the same or a less 
amount. Many towns had mills for producing 
cloth, and the business of supplying the army 
grew rapidly. The campaign of 1775", however, 
was fought by men who had no clothing at hand 
suitable for very cold weather, and in many cases 
no blankets between their bodies and the ground.^ 
The insufficient clothing was more serious in the 
expedition led by Montgomery in the autumn of 
1775 to Montreal. His proclamation, promising 
every article of clothing requisite for the rigors 
of the climate, was intended to satisfy the men 
who were willing to go forward ; it shows that 
they might expect blanket-coats, coats, waistcoats, 
breeches, one pair of stockings, two shirts, leg- 
gings, sacks, shoes, mittens, and a cap.^ The 

1 Weeden's Economic and Social History, pp. 73 i, 789, 790. 

2 American Historical Review, October, 1900, p. 106; see 
also p. 107. 

3 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, pp. 142, 147. 
^Lossing's Schuyler (1872), vol. i, p. 464. 

[ 98 1 



Material Needs 



way to Canada might be said to have been 
paved with promises, and it proved to be a rough 
road. 

In December, 1776, Washington referred to 
the distresses of his soldiers, "many of 'em being 
entirely naked and more so thinly clad as to be 
unfit for service." ^ The hardships of the year 
before had dampened the enthusiasm of the 
farmers, and enlistments fell off. The men had 
ragged shirts and many marched with their feet 
bare ; ^ a few days of active service resulted in 
sickness for want of proper covering at night and 
lameness for lack of shoes. Many deserted, im- 
pelled by indignation at what was believed to be 
the bad faith and indifference of the Colonial 
Assemblies. Colonel Angell, of Rhode Island, 
writing from Peekskill in August, 1777, to the 
governor of his State, declared that the condition 
of his regiment was so scandalous that the mem- 
bers of the other corps and people in the villages 
along the line of march called his men "the 
Ragged, Lousey, Naked regiment." ^ 

These troubles reached their worst form in 
the winter at Valley Forge in 1777-78 and in 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 5, p. 103. 

2 Jiid., vol. 5, p. 151. 

3 I. Angcli's Diary (Field), p. xii. 

LofC. t 99 1 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

the summer which followed. The Ne-w Tork 
Gazette at this time reported humorously that 
Congress was not prevented from making more 
paper dollars by scarcity of rags, for " independ- 
ent of the large supply expected from Washing- 
ton's army as soon as they can be spared, we 
have reason to believe the country in general 
never abounded more in that article." ^ The dress 
of the soldiers was a favorite subject for jest, 
in one form or another, among the British. A 
poem addressed to Washington, who had issued 
a proclamation to the people calling upon them 
to fatten their cattle for his army, has the lines : 

And for the beef — there needs no puff about it ; 
In short, they must content themselves without it, 
Not that we mean to have them starved — why, marry. 
The live-stock in abundance, which they carry 
Upon their backs, prevents all fear of that ! ^ 

Upward of 2,000 men were unfit for service in 
November, 1777; in December there were 2,898 
men in camp unfit for duty, many with no shoes 
and some without shirts. Many were confined 

* New York Gazette, February 23, 1778. In F. Moore's 
Diary, vol. 2, p. 16. 

-Rivington's Royal Gazette, January 2, 1779. In Moore's 
Diary, vol. 2, p. 118. 

[ 100 ] 



Material Needs 



to hospitals and farm-houses with feet too sore to 
bear unprotected the winter snows.^ When the 
trampled mud froze suddenly the rough ridges 
were like knives, and although men cut up their 
blankets and bound the strips about their feet 
the flesh was soon as unprotected as before.^ 
Still others, in their huts, sat by the fire through 
the night and dozed, unwilling to lie far enough 
from the coals to sleep.^ A fourth or fifth of the 
army passed the summer of 1778 about White 
Plains without shoes, and many with tattered 
shirts and breeches."* The winter of 1779-80 
was endured by many without suitable covering 
at night,^ and it is not strange that the young 
men in the country towns demanded exorbitant 
bounty money when asked to enlist in the fol- 
lowing spring. If the Continental Congress 
could have offered good clothing and sufficient 
food soldiers might have been found for little or 
no bounty. 

A vivid picture of Virginia troops is given by 
Thomas Anburey in his untrustworthy but read- 

• Washington, December 29, 1777. In his Writings (Ford), 
vol. 6, p. 267, 

^John Shreve's Personal Narrative. Magazine of American 
History, September, 1879, P* 5^^- 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 6, p. 260. 

* Ibid.y vol. 8, p. 333. ^ Ibid., vol. 7, p. 137. 

[ loi ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

able book of" travels. The writer claims that the 
colonel was proud of their appearance, and went 
about with two troopers before and two behind 
him, bearing drawn swords. Anburey writes : 

" As to those troops of [Colonel Bland's Vir- 
ginia] regiment with Washington's army, I can- 
not say any thing, but the two that the colonel 
has with him here, for the purposes of expresses 
and attendance, are the most curious figures you 
ever saw ; some, like Prince Prettyman, with one 
boot, some hoseless, with their feet peeping out 
of their shoes ; others with breeches that put de- 
cency to the blush ; some in short jackets, some 
in long coats, but all have fine dragoon caps, and 
long swords slung round them, some with hol- 
sters, some without, but gadamercy pistols, for 
they have not a brace and a half among them, 
but they are tolerably well mounted." ^ 

While considering the lack of clothing, Wash- 
ington wrote to General Lincoln : " What makes 
the matter more mortifying is that we have, I am 
positively assured Ten thousand compleat suits 
ready in France & laying there because our pub- 
lic agents cannot agree whose business it is to 
ship them — a quantity has also lain in the West 
Indies for more than eighteen months, owing 

'Anburey's Travels, vol. 2, p. 320. 
[ 102 ] 



Material Needs 



probably to some such cause." ^ The effect of 
this kind of official inaction upon the private 
may be illustrated by an old soldier's experience 
which he described to the historian of the First 
New Hampshire Regiment. This man had, at 
the time of these troubles, a furlough to visit his 
home ; but the journey was a long one. Before 
he could start he was obliged to spend two days 
in cutting up his blanket to make for himself 
breeches and a pair of moccasins.^ 

Two months before the siege of Yorktown 
began, the men were so destitute of clothing 
that the French troops, encamped near by, made 
jokes on the nudity of the Continentals ; yet, such 
was their loyalty to the cause of the Colonies that, 
when two ships from Spain arrived with sup- 
plies, and some of the coats were found to be 
red in color like those worn by the British, the 
Americans, ill-clad as they were, refused to wear 
them.^ A humorous view of the veterans was 
taken by the " Peaceable man," as he styled 
himself, when he " ventured to prophesy . . . 
that if the war is continued through the winter, 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 9, p. 51. 
2 Kidder's First New Hampshire Regiment, p. 72. 
2 Chevalier de la Luzerne, in J. Durand's New Materials, p. 
250. 

[ 103 ] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

the British troops will be scared at the sight of 
our men, for as they never fought with naked 
men, the novelty of it will terrify them." ^ Times 
changed, however, and the winter of 1782-83 
was passed at Newburgh in comfort; the men 
were better fed, well clothed, and sheltered.^ 

Ragged uniforms and poor food for a long 
time not only discouraged enlistments, but in- 
jured the efficiency of the men in the service. 
Soldiers grumbled, and if they did not come to 
open mutiny, they grew careless about their ap- 
pearance and negligent in their habits. " Our 
men," Washington wrote in the orders of the 
day for January l , 1 776, " are brave and good ; 
men who, with pleasure it is observed, are ad- 
dicted to fewer vices than are commonly found 
in armies. ... If a soldier cannot be in- 
duced to take pride in his person he will soon 
become a Sloven, and indifferent to everything 
else. Whilst we have men, therefore, who in 
every respect are superior to mercenary troops, 
that are fighting for ta:o pence or three pence a day, 
why cannot we in appearance also be superior to 
them, when we fight for Life, Liberty, Property 
and our Country "? " 

^ M. Morris's Private Journal, p. i6. 
^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. lo, p. I 53. 
[ 104 ] 




Flint-lock guns, wooden canteen, and welded bayonet which were used 
by privates during the Revolution. The barrel of the lower gun 
has bfeen shortened. 

(Originals owned by James E. Kelly.) 



IV 

Firelock and Powder 

ALTHOUGH guns were far more gen- 
erally used at the outbreak of the Rev- 
olution than they are to-day, a serious 
problem in each campaign was to provide fire- 
arms for the troops. Each farmer in 1775 had 
his trusted flintlock, made usually by the hand 
of a village gunsmith.^ With the disappearance 
of village artisans much of the charm and pros- 
perity of rural towns has taken flight. The little 
shop of the cordwainer, or shoemaker, no longer 
resounds to the merry tapping of the pegs or the 
creaking of the waxed threads in his hands ; the 

1 The warlike stores in Massachusetts, and what is now Maine, 

reported April 14, 1775, aggregated : 

Fire-arms 21, 549 

Pounds of powder 1 7,444 

Pounds of lead balls 22,191 

Number of flints 1 44,699 

Number of bayonets 10, 108 

Number of pouches 11,979 

(Journals of Each Provincial Congress, edited by Lincoln, 

p. 756.) 

[ 105 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

cooper and the broom-maker are so rare that few 
of the present generation have seen the one 
crowding his staves into place and the other 
shaping the broom-corn about the handle. The 
itinerant weaver, too, has passed away, and the 
miller no longer grinds the coarse flour, corn- 
meal, and buckwheat which delighted the chil- 
dren of a by-gone age. Who of us, looking 
through the advertising pages of a popular mag- 
azine, will feel any sentiment for the factories 
and mills pictured there — those unlovely suc- 
cessors of the vine-covered shops of the cord- 
wainer, the cooper, the gunsmith *? 

To polish the barrel of a gun with buckskin 
and to keep a gloss on the stock by frequent use 
of oil and wax required more time than the av- 
erage soldier could or perhaps would give;^ so 
that during the war many of the firelocks soon 
wore out from exposure to the weather ; some 
were lost in difficult marches, and others becom- 
ing broken could not easily be repaired, since the 
parts were usually hand-made and a new part 
had to be fitted to its place. The Continental 
Congress, July 18, 1775, in recommending the 
formation of militia companies, suggested that 

1 Major Elliott's Orders ; in Charleston Year Book, 1889, p. 
247. 

[ 106 ] 



Firelock and Powder 



each soldier have a good musket that would 
carry an ounce ball, a bayonet, steel ramrod, 
worm, priming wire, and brush fitted thereto, 
a cutting-sword or tomahawk, a cartridge-box 
to contain twenty-three rounds of cartridges, 
twelve flints, and a knapsack. The barrel was 
to be three and a half feet long. In time Con- 
gress established a Continental gun-factory at 
Lancaster, Penn., and a gun-lock factory at 
Trenton.^ 

When the militia soldier provided his own 
firelock his contribution to the cause was con- 
siderable for those days. In Massachusetts a 
gun and bayonet were estimated by the Provin- 
cial Congress to be worth £l ; ^ in Pennsylvania 
in 1776 a gun brought about the same sum. In 
Virginia in 1778 a gun appears to have been 
worth from £0^ to ^5, and a rifle a pound or two 
more; a drum was valued at half as much. At 
this time ^5 would buy about fifteen cords of 
wood, pay a laborer for two weeks' work, or pur- 
chase some fifty bushels of coal.^ 

The flintlock, or firelock as it was commonly 
called, was an effective weapon when supple- 

' Journals of Congress, May 23, 1776. 
2 Journals, October 25, 1774. 

2 Virginia Historical Magazine, January, 1899, pp. 280—283. 
[ 107 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under WasJmigton 

mented by earthworks. At Bunker Hill, after 
two splendid but ineffective advances against the 
Americans in their hastily formed defences, Gen- 
eral Howe saw that the bayonet was his last re- 
source to silence their destructive fire. At Long 
Island the British used the bayonet with deadly 
effect, by receiving the fire of Washington's men 
and charging before they could reload.^ Therein 
lay the weakness of the firelock, for the manner 
of loading was clumsy and slow. The end of 
the cartridge — a paper case filled with ball and 
powder — was bitten off, and a little powder was 
sprinkled on the pan ; ^ the remainder of the con- 
tents was then dropped into the muzzle of the 
barrel and held in by ramming down the car- 
tridge-case like a wad. The powder in the 
flash-pan, ignited by sparks from the contact of 
a flint with the " battery " (a piece of steel), 
communicated through a hole with the charge 
in the barrel. From this description it will be 
evident that the manual of exercise called for 
movements more intricate in loading and reload- 

* Lord Percy's Letter; in Boston Public Library Bulletin, 
January, 1892, p. 325. A century before this it was part of 
a musketeer's training to draw his sword when hard pressed in- 
stead of attempting to reload. 

2 Sometimes "priming powder," of better quality, was used. 
[ 108 ] 



Firelock and Powder 



ing than were required later when the percussion- 
lock came into use. 

Until the introduction of Baron Steuben's plan 
in 1779 the form of exercise in the regiments 
was influenced by the previous training of the 
colonels in English, French, or German meth- 
ods.^ The English systems in use in the Colo- 
nies before the war naturally had the greatest 
vogue. In 1757 the Militia Bill was passed in 
England to provide 32,000 men for home de- 
fence, so that the regular army could be em- 
ployed abroad. As the new levies were to ex- 
ercise but one day a week a simple form of 
discipline was desirable ; and that devised for 
the county of Norfolk became so successful for 
drilling militia that it was known widely as the 
Norfolk Discipline. This plan was in favor in 
New England as early as 1768, when an abstract 
was published at Boston ; and Timothy Picker- 
ing's simphfication of the Norfolk was much used 
at the North early in the war. Colonel Bland's ^ 
Treatise, published first in 1727, was more or less 
in use in the South ; a copy had been in Wash- 
ington's library for many years. 

The Massachusetts Provincial Congress, how- 
ever, had in 1774 adopted the British army man- 

^Steuben's Memorial in Kapp's Life (1859), p. 127. 
[ 109 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

ual of 1764 (known as the "Sixty-fourth"),* 
which, at the time the New Haven edition ap- 
peared, was in general use in Connecticut, Rhode 
Island, and Massachusetts Bay.^ The words of 
command and motions for priming, loading, and 
firing a flintlock may be of interest in this age 
of rapid-fire machine-guns. The explanations are 
not given in full, as they are very detailed, to 
obtain uniformity in company drill. 

1. Poise your Firelocks! ------ 2 motions 

1. (Lock outward, firelock per- 

pendicular.) 

2. (Left hand just above the lock 

and of an equal height with 
the eyes.) 

2. Cock your Firelocks J ----- ~ 2. motions 

3. Present / ----___.. i motion 

I. (Six inches to rear with right 
foot. Butt-end to shoulder.) 

* Washington's own copies of Pickering and the Norfolk show 
no signs of wear; of the "Sixty-fourth" he had six copies, 
but the one in his Hbrary is fresh. His copy of the later work 
by Steuben bears annotations in MS. (probably his own), some 
of which were incorporated into succeeding editions. Sabin 
says that copies of Pickering's Easy Plan show much wear. It 
was adopted by Massachusetts in 1776. See Catalogue of 
Washington Collection in Boston Athensum, pp. 135, 163. 
For an opinion of the Norfolk Discipline see the Monthly Re- 
view, vol. 21 (London, 1759), P* 34°* 

^Sabin's Dictionary, viii., 30771. 
[ iio ] 




Plate taken from " Regulations for the Order and Discipline 




the Troops of the United States," by Baron de Steuben. 



Firelock and Powder 

4. Fire ! --------__i motion 

5 . Half-cock your Firelocks I - _ _ _ i motion 

6. Handle your Cartridge I ----- i motion 

I. (Slap your Pouch, seize Car- 
tridge, bite the top well off.) 

7. Prime f -------- ..i motion 

I. (Shake the powder into the pan.) 

8. Shut your Pans / -------2 motions 

9. Charge with Cartridge f ----- 2 motions 

1. (Put the Cartridge into the 

muzzle, shaking the pow- 
der into the barrel.) 

2. (Hand on Rammer.) 

10. Draw your Ra/mners ! - ----- 2 motions 

1 1 . Ram down your Cartridge / - - - - 1 motion 

12. Return your Rammers / ----- i motion 

13. Shoulder your Firelocks/ ^ - - - - - 2 motions 

1. (Left hand under butt.) 

2. (Right hand thrown down at side.) 

These actions were much the same in all the 
manuals, although in the Norfolk they were be- 
gun chiefly from the shoulder, and not, as here, 
from the " rest." Baron Steuben made his words 
of command shorter and sharper. In the ma- 
noeuvres greater divergence appears. 

At this time there were two serious objections 
to the firelock : the soldier required so long to 
load and fire it that a rapid advance of the enemy 
[ III ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

close upon the discharge found him with no 
weapon ready for defence, so that he was apt to 
be overcome with panic ; and the two qualities 
of powder needed in the cartridge and the pan 
for effective firing were difficult to obtain. 
Franklin advocated the introduction of pikes; 
and in a letter in 1776 gave strong reasons for 
the use of bows and arrows, claiming that a man 
could send four arrows for every bullet, that his 
vision was not clouded by smoke, that his enemy 
seeing the arrow (he could not see a bullet) had 
his attention diverted from his duty, and when 
struck he was less able to fight.* It is interesting 
to hear Colonel Thomson, a successful militia 
officer of South Carolina, advocate the next year 
for his regiment one hundred "complete rifle- 
men with good horses and spears." ^ 

The use of an old-time musket, which now 
seems so cumbersome, led to frequent accidents. 
In August, 1775, for example, a man forgot to 
stop the end of his powder-horn ; he flashed the 
powder in the pan of his gun so near to the horn 
that there was a conflagration which burned many 

1 Franklin to Charles Lee. In his Works (Bigelow), vol. 6, 
p. 2. 

2 Thomson to Rutledge, August 13, 1777; in Salley's 
Orangeburg County, S. C, p. 452. 

[ 112 ] 



Firelock and Powde? 



soldiers.^ Another man lowered his gun to re- 
cock it, when there was a report and the gun 
" kicked " him in the breast, producing instant 
death.^ The force of these firelocks may be il- 
lustrated by an accident that happened in Decem- 
ber, 1775; John M'Murtry, who was cleaning his 
gun, put in the priming and pulled the trigger, 
not knowing that it carried a load ; the shot went 
through a double partition of inch boards, through 
one board of a berth, through the breast of a man 
named Penn, and hit a chimney, leaving its mark 
there.^ 

The scarcity of fire-arms made it necessary in 
the autumn of 1775 for Washington to order 
that no soldier was to carry away his arms if they 
were fit for use ; private property would be ap- 
praised and purchased.^ In the following Janu- 
ary he authorized colonels to buy guns which the 
militia were willing to sell;^ and yet a month 
later 2,000 men in camp lacked arms.** Colonel 

^ Rev. B. Boardman's Diary ; in Massachusetts Historical 
Society Proceedings, May, 1892, p. 404, 

2 Lieutenant I. Bangs's Journal, p. 55. 

3 A. Wright's Journal; in Historical Magazine, July, 1862, 
p. 2 11. 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 233. 

^Washington's Orderly Book, January 28, 1776. 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 406. 

[ 113 1 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Ritzema's regiment in May possessed in all 
ninety-seven firelocks and seven bayonets.^ In 
July of the critical summer of 1776 nearly one- 
fourth of the army had no arms,^ and the New 
York convention ordered that each militia-man 
without arms should bring with him a shovel, 
spade, pick-axe, or a scythe straightened and 
made fast to a pole.^ 

One method of obtaining weapons was to dis- 
arm all disaffected persons,"* and another means of 
increasing the supply was to purchase through 
local committees of safety the arms owned by 
men who for one reason or another were not like- 
ly to engage in active service. In Pennsylvania 
county committees of safety, by authority of the 
province assembly, appointed three collectors for 
each township. These men could call upon the 
nearest colonel of militia for aid or could bring 
before the committees any recalcitrants.^ 

Congress urged upon the Colonies the need of 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 65. 

'^ C. F. Adams, in American Historical Review, vol. I, p. 
651. 

3 New York Convention Journal, August 10, 1776; Wash- 
ington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 338. 

^Journals of Congress, March 14, 1776. 

5 Minutes Bucks County Committee ; in Pennsylvania Ar- 
chives, 2d series, vol. 15, p. 359 et seq. 
[ 114 ] 



1 



Firelock and Powder 



encouraging gunsmiths,^ and the Colonies them- 
selves imported large consignments of fire-arms 
from Bordeaux in France.^ Pliarne, Penet et 
Cie., of Nantes, did a large export business and 
claimed that they were able to send arms and 
powder directly from the royal manufactories.^ 

Lead was to be had with less effort; that for 
the campaign of 1776 was taken from the statue 
of King George on the Bowling Green and from 
the house-tops of New York ; ^ and the amount 
needed for the operations of 1777 came from the 

^Journals of Congress, November 4, 1775. 

^American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 1065. 

^ Ibid., vol. 2, col. I 147. 

* Washington to the President of Congress, July 3, 1776. 

The following note is from the Journal of Lieutenant Isaac 
Bangs (p. 57) : 

[July loth, 1776.] Last Night the Statue on the Bowling 
Green representing George Ghwelph, alias George Rex . . . 
was pulled down by the Populace. In it were 4000 Pounds of 
Lead. . . . The Lead, we hear, is to be run up into Mus- 
quet Balls for the use of the Yankies, when it is hoped that the 
Emanations of the Leaden George will make as deep impressions 
in the Bodies of some of his red Coated & Torie Subjects, & 
that they will do the same execution in poisoning & destroying 
them, as the superabundant Emanations of the Folly & pretended 
Goodness of the real George have made upon their Minds, 
which have effectually poisoned & destroyed their Souls, that 
they are not worthy to be ranked with any Beings who have any 
Pretensions to the Principles of Virtue & Justice. 

[ 115 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

leaden spouts and window-weights of Philadel- 
phia.* As the bore of the muskets differed in 
size the bullet-moulds were often of various sizes, 
and were joined together so that a soldier could 
make balls to fit any firelock. The running of 
balls — running the lead into the moulds — was a 
frequent duty in camp ; it was noted one day by 
David How in his diary that he went to Prospect 
Hill after he had done his "steant running ball." ^ 
A quarter of ' a pound of buck-shot^ or a pound 
of lead to be " cast into ball to suit the bore " was 
a proper allowance for a man.^ In Stark's regi- 
ment each man on the day of Bunker Hill fight 
had a flint in his gun, and was served a gill-cup 
full of powder and fifteen balls for his cartridges.^ 
Powder was the crying need through much of 
the war. As early as 1774, the Provincial Con- 
gress of Massachusetts made an effort to provide 
powder; in December, Connecticut sought to 
obtain more powder, and Mr. Shaw, a New Lon- 

^ American Archives V., vol. i, col. 366 ; see also Journals 
of Congress, July 31, 1775. There was also a good lead mine 
in Virginia. 

^D. How's Diary, pp. 5, 30. 

3 A. Lewis's Orderly Book, April 19, 1776. 

•* Orderly Book of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga 
(1859), P- 24. 

^Quoted in Trevelyan's American Revolution, pt. i, p. 331. 
[ 116 ] 



Firelock and Powder 



don ship-owner, offered a swift vessel to go to the 
West Indies for this purpose.^ " To maintain a 
post within musket-shot of the enemy for six 
months together," said Washington, " without 
[powder],'^ and at the same time to disband one 
army [i.e., of 1775] and recruit another within 
that distance of twenty-odd British regiments, 
is more, probably, than ever was attempted."^ 
Every effort was made to purchase powder, to 
encourage the manufacture of it, and to have the 
people save nitre and sulphur."* The Provincial 
Congress, two months before the battle of Lexing- 
ton took place, resolved to appoint a committee 
to draw up directions " in an easy and familiar 
style " for the manufacture of saltpetre, these to 
be printed and sent to every town and district in 
the province at the public expense.^ Further- 
more, the Congress agreed to purchase all the 
saltpetre manufactured in the province for the 
next twelve months at a stated price. After the 
passage of this act a " simple countryman," it is 

' Caulkins's New London, p. 508. 

2 The word was omitted lest the letter, if it fell into the hands 
of the enemy, should disclose Washington's precarious condition. 

3 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 313. 
^Weeden's Economic and Social History, vol. 2, p. 789. 
^Journals Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, February 15, 

1775- 

[ 117 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

said, brought into the House half a bushel of 
saltpetre which he had made, and promised that 
more could be made in eight months than the 
province had money to pay for. His method, 
the same as that described in the official Water- 
town pamphlet, is (in the language of a contem- 
porary letter) " to take the earth from under old 
houses. Barns, &c., & put it lightly into a hogs- 
head or Barrel ; & then fill it with water, w'^'' 
immediately forms a lie. This lie he then puts 
into an ashes leach that has all the goodness ex- 
tracted before, this being only as a strainer. After 
it is run thro' w''\ he boils the Lie so clarified to 
a certain Consistance, & then puts it to cool, 
when the saltpetre forms, & is immediately fit for 
use ; & from every Bushel of earth he produces 
^ lb. saltpetre. On this information . . . the 
Act was suppressed for Amendment."^ 

The Congress at Philadelphia aided in the 
quest for powder by authorizing suspension ot 
the non-importation agreement in the case of 
vessels bringing gunpowder or sulphur (with 
four times as much saltpetre), or brass field- 
pieces, or muskets with bayonets, allowing them 
to carry out the same value, generously esti- 

* Joseph Barrell to Joseph Green, November 3, 1775 ; in 
Boston in 1775 (Ford), p. 37. 

t 118 ] 



Firelock and Powder 



mated, in produce from the Colonies.^ Congress, 
on June lo, 1775, recommended to the several 
towns and districts in the Colonies that they col- 
lect all their saltpetre and sulphur, to be sent 
from the northern colonies to New York, from 
the central colonies to Philadelphia, and from 
those farther south to their committees and con- 
ventions to be manufactured into gunpowder. 

The committee of safety in Philadelphia not 
only published the description of a process for 
making saltpetre, but called upon the local com- 
mittee of each county to send two persons to 
learn the business at their works; these men 
when trained were, at the committee's expense, 
to travel from town to town for the purpose of 
instructing others in the art.^ 

The flint was characteristic of the gun of this 
period. The blunderbuss, a short gun with a 
large bore, clumsy and inaccurate of aim, had 
nearly passed out of use ; ^ the old-time slow 
match which ignited the priming-powder had 
given way to the grooved wheel with serrated 

' Journals of Congress, July 15, 1775. 

2 Minutes Bucks County Committee of Safety ; in Pennsyl- 
vania Archives, 2d series, vol. 15, p. 354. 

2 Journals Provincial Congress of Massachusetts (Lincoln), 
p. 526. 

[ 119 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

edges, rotating against a flint, and this in turn 
passed out of use when the flint was fastened 
into the jaws of the cock and sprung against the 
steel hammer or cover-plate of the flash-pan. 
Each man when possible had at least two flints,^ 
and also a wooden "driver" or " snapper," which 
was substituted for the flint at the time of ex- 
ercise to prevent unnecessary wear of the stone. 
A good flint would fire sixty rounds before it 
had to be repaired, but the habit of snapping the 
lock was so prevalent that few flints did so much 
service.^ 

Flints were not easily obtained and workmen 
who could shape them were few. When " a 
vein of prodigious fine black flint stone " was 
discovered upon Mount Independence (near Ti- 
conderoga) in 1776, the commanding officers of 
regiments were ordered to inquire if there were 
among their soldiers any old countrymen who 
understood the hammering of flints.^ 

^ A. Lewis's Orderly Book, p. 29. 

2 Washington's Orderly Book, -May 21, 1776 ; in his Writ- 
ings (Ford), vol, 4, p. 100. General Greene, in his orders 
May 29, 1776, directed as a penalty for snapping locks two 
days and nights confinement on bread and water. (Long Island 
Historical Society Memoirs, vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 14.) 

2 Lieutenant E. Elmer's Journal; in New Jersey Historical 
Society Proceedings, vol. 3 (1849), p. 41. 
[ 120 ] 




Musket, powder-horn, bullet-flask, and buck-shot pouch carried 
in the Revolution (lent to the Bostonian Society by George B. 
Dexter, Esq.). Drum carried at the battle of Bunker Hill. 



I 



'Ai-*^^^ ^tjf}^-^^ ^jt^' 




C f nmlcr cf Tupfiics, Watcrtovn, June 18, 177^. 

G.'iNTl EMF.V, 

THE VVeifarc of onr Country again induces tis to urge your 
exertions in fending to ihc Magazine in tiiis place, what 
..-ri^n *"• pro cuicO u ftliC fotl o w ing A rt}e!g?;^ltPoik,Bca"^» 
Peas, Vinegar and Blankets, the prizes whereof as well as- 
the CarriDg (liall be allowed ac co rd i n g to the Cuftom of your I'lacer 
vhich we defire you to certify — Ic is of the ucmoft Importance thac 
the Aimy fiiould be fuppiied agreeable to the Refolve of the Con- 
};r-is more efpccially with thefc Articles, the four firft of which are 
BecelTi y for the irubfiflcnce as well as the Health of the Men, and, 
the other for their Comfort — The occafion of the Deficiency in 
J.'iimkets is moftly owing to a number of Men enlifted from Bofton 
and other Towns which have been vacated, acd they all muft be 
procured immediately or our worthy Countrymen will fufFer. — 

As the Country affords every thing, in plenty neccflary to fubfift 
the Army, and we cannot at prefent obtain many things but by youf 

Afllflanct ;, W<; pflTiri-OHffFlyes thaCjJOU will aA ynuy ptn-f<; qi; wnrrhily 

a^ you have done and hope tliac the Event of all our exertions will' 
be the Salvation of bur Country. 
To- tht SekBmen and Committee 
of Corrtfpijndaice fop. the T(kvn 



D.win CHEEvrR, per Order of 
Coaunitcec of Supplies, 



?C. 



Call for food and blankets. June 18, 1775. 

{Original owned by the Boston Public library.) 



BUNKER'. HILL.| 

I. tXmt Ptacc a Day. j* 

IL Rottea Salt Poik. jt 

UL The Scuny. \ 

IV. Slatery, Bcegary snd Want h 



f PROSPECT HILL. 

\ I. Sem Dollu* • MoqeH. -^ — 

Ml. Fiefh Provi&m, tad in Plenty. -^ — 
/niHetlth. . _ -. — 
^ IV, Freedom, Cafe, Affluence tnd » good Firm. 



Handbill sent among the British troops on Bunker Hi 

(Original owned by the Massachusetts Historical Society.) 



Firelock and Powder 



At the beginning of the war the farmers had 
their powder-horns, many of which bore designs 
and phrases expressing the sentiments of their 
owners. It was soon discovered that paper cyl- 
inders filled with powder and balls, and bound 
at either end with jack-thread, were more ser- 
viceable. They were ready for use in an emer- 
gency and in time of rain or snow ; on the other 
hand, they could not be withdrawn except by 
firing the gun, and when powder was scarce the 
battalion or regimental guards (quarter-guards 
they were called) were instructed, it would seem, 
to charge their pieces with powder and " run- 
ning " (loose-fitting ? ) balls that there might be 
no waste of ammunition.^ The number of rounds 
carried by each man was less than the British 
regulars had at almost every period of the war, 
owing to the scarcity of cartridge-paper and pow- 
der. At the battle of Bunker Hill most of the 
men are said to have fired thirty rounds.^ In 
the Quebec expedition Arnold's men had only 
five rounds apiece,^ and during the winter of 

^ Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings, October, 
1876, p. 94; June, 1875, p. 90. 

2 Letter of Jesse Lukens, September, 1775 ; in Boston Public 
Library, Historical Manuscripts, No. i, p. 25. 

^American Historical Review, vol. i, p. 296. 
[ 121 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

1775-76 Washington felt that he could not risk 
more than twelve or fifteen rounds at a time in 
the hands of the men.^ Later on the Continen- 
tal soldiers carried as many as twenty-five or 
forty rounds to be used against the sixty of the 
regulars.^ 

Given the firelock with powder and balls, 
there was still to be considered the man behind 
it; his skill and courage were worthy the atten- 
tion of the Commander himself In his book of 
orders, under date of June 29, 1 776, Washington 
said to his soldiers : 

" He [the General] recommends to them to 
load for their first fire with one musket ball and 
four or eight buck shot, according to the size 
and strength of their pieces ; if the enemy is re- 
ceived with such a fire at not more than twenty 
or thirty yards distant, he has no doubt of their 
being repulsed."'^ When placed behind earth- 
works or a stone wall this had proved the best of 
devices. In the open field enough disciplined 
troops would survive such a fire to fall upon 
the raw recruits with fixed bayonets before they 
could, in their inexperience, load and deliver a 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 387. 

"^ Ibid., vol. 3, p. 426 ; vol. 4, p. 201 ; vol. 6, p. 71. 

^ Ibid., vol. 4, p. 194. 

[ 122 ] 



Firelock and Powder 



second volley ; ^ but the regulars were scarcely a 
match for the militia when protected by earth- 
works. 

Officers constantly advised the militia to hold 
their fire until the enemy approached to within 
a few yards of their defences ; they gave orders 
also to aim with care, for they knew that many 
in the ranks were marksmen. When 500 vol- 
unteers were to be levied in the mountains of 
Virginia in 1775, so many men came forward 
that the commanding officer made his selection 
by a trial of skill. A board one foot square 
bearing a chalk outline of a nose was nailed to a 
tree at a distance of 150 yards, or about the space 
covered by fifteen to twenty houses in a modern 
city block. Those who came nearest the mark 
with a single bullet were to be enlisted. The 
first forty or fifty men who shot cut the nose en- 
tirely out of the board.^ 

At Bunker Hill the American works were 
silent until the British were within forty yards, 
and where companies of grenadiers had stood, 
three out of four, even nine out of ten in 
some places, lay dead or wounded in the long 

^ See note No. i, p. 108. 

^John Harrower's Diary ; in American Historical Review, 
October, 1900, p. 100. 

[ 123 ] 



The Pmate Soldier Under Washington 

grass.^ A Scotchman living in Virginia said 
two months later that the slaughter of June 17th 
was to be attributed to the fact that the Amer- 
icans " took sight " when they fired. 

1 Trevelyan's American Revolution, pt. i, p. 328; Percy to 
his father, June 19, 1775 (MS. letters at Alnwick). 



[ 124 1 



' V 
Officer and Private 

IT is difficult to ascertain just what Washing- 
ton thought of the private soldiers. When 
by a disgraceful retreat, as once happened, he 
was left in imminent danger of capture, he was 
incensed at the cowardice of his men ; when he 
saw them enlist where they were offered the 
largest bounty, he scorned their avarice ; but 
when they suffered and were patient, were tested 
and proved loyal and courageous, he loved and 
praised them. He put his trust in the native 
rank and file, and chose for his bodyguard only 
those born in America or those who were bound 
to the land by the strongest ties of blood.^ The 
privates bore hardships such as, in his opinion, 
would have broken the spirit of foreign soldiers. 
In the spring of 1778 he wrote from Valley 
Forge : " To see men, without clothes to cover 
their nakedness, without blankets to lie on, with- 
out shoes by which their marches might be 

1 Historical Magazine, vol. 2, p. 131. 
[ 125 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

traced by the blood from their feet, and almost 
as often without provisions as with them, march- 
ing through the frost and snow, and at Christmas 
taking up their winter quarters within a day's 
march of the enemy without a house or hut to 
cover them, till they could be built, and submit- 
ting to it without a murmur, is a proof of pa- 
tience and obedience which in my opinion can 
scarce be paralleled." ^ Colonel John Laurens, a 
young officer at head-quarters, shows in his let- 
ters a frank affection for the men whom he de- 
sired to command. " I would cherish," he said, 
" those dear, ragged Continentals, whose patience 
will be the admiration of future ages, and [I] 
glory in bleeding with them."^ From the words 
of Washington and of Laurens it is reasonable 
to suppose that the rank and file were kindly 
remembered in the deliberations of those who 
formed the Commander's official family. 

Washington knew, the trials of the men who 
served under him ; his kindly heart tempered the 
course of justice because he could measure the 
strength of their temptations. But officers were 
not always men of character — or, to use the old 
word, men of true quality — and the private, rea- 

1 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 6, p. 487. 

2 Army Correspondence of Colonel John Laurens, p. 136, 

[ 126 ] 



O^cer and Private 



sonably patient under almost -unheard-of priva- 
tion and suffering, chafed beneath the yoke of 
militarism. At the South the owner of a plan- 
tation, having large opportunities for culture by 
means of his great wealth, commanded respect, 
and having many servants he grew to exercise 
the voice of authority. At the North there was 
none of this, and a distinction between officer and 
man did not prevail in the rural militia of New 
England.^ This was due, in part at least, to the 
levelling influence of small farms. The private's 
company officers were not infrequently his inti- 
mate friends or even his inferiors, men who had 
devoted their time to the local militia organiza- 
tion and had become familiar with drill and tac- 
tics while he, perhaps, was busy with other mat- 
ters. The private could not understand why he 
should salute such neighbors because they were 
in camp, or why he should ask of them per- 
mission to go beyond the lines. When the men 
gathered at the siege of Boston they were at first 
allowed much liberty ; a soldier, wishing to go 
home for a few days, wrote a letter to a friend or 
relative and asked him to come to camp as a sub- 
stitute.^ Before many weeks had passed the men 

1 See also Franklin's Works (Bigelow), vol. 4, p. 245, 

2 Green's Groton During the Revolution, p. 8. 

1 127 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

noticed the increasing rigor of army discipline. 
Even a man of superior education, Rev. William 
Emerson, commented upon the "great distinction 
made between officers and soldiers," where every- 
one was made to know his place and keep in it, 
on pain of receiving thirty or forty lashes.^ 

Intelligent opinion was, on the whole, against 
the popular social philosophy of the day, when 
applied to army life. Joseph Reed, writing to 
his wife October ii, 1776, remarks: "Where 
the principles of democracy so universally pre- 
vail, where so great an equality and so thorough 
a levelling spirit predominates, either no disci- 
pline can be established, or he who attempts it 
must become odious and detestable, a position 
which no one will choose. You may form some 
notion of it when I tell you that yesterday morn- 
ing a captain of horse, who attends the General 
from Connecticut, was seen shaving one of his 
men on the parade near the house." ^ The same 
impression was gained by James Wilkinson, who 
noticed in the camp at Boston but little distinc- 
tion between colonel and private.^ Graydon is 

^ Washington's Writings (Sparks), vol. 3, p. 491. 
2 Joseph Reed's Life and Correspondence (1847), vol. i, 
p. 243 ; also American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 994. 
3J. Wilkinson's Memoirs (1816), vol. i, p. 16. 
[ 128 ] 



Officer and Private 



another witness ; he recalls the story of Colonel 
Putnam, chief engineer of the army, who was seen 
with a large piece of meat in his hand. "• What," 
said a friend, " carrying home your rations your- 
self. Colonel?" "Yes," he replied, " and I do it to 
set the officers a good example." And Graydon 
adds that if Putnam had seen any aristocratic ten- 
dencies in the army they must have been of very 
recent origin and due to southern contamination. 
It was not at all uncommon for company or 
even regimental officers to give to their sons or 
younger brothers positions which were below 
commissioned rank.^ But rank came to be more 
jealously guarded as time went on. In 1779, at 
a brigade court-martial. Captain Dexter, for be- 
havior unbecoming the character of an officer 
and a gentleman in frequently associating with 
the wagon-master of the brigade, was sentenced 
to be discharged the service.^ Earlier in the war 
Lieutenant Whitney, "for infamous conduct in 
degrading himself by voluntarily doing the duty 
of an orderly sergeant," was sentenced to be se- 
verely reprimanded.^ Among a rural people at 

^ Graydon's Memoirs, p. 147. 
2 Colonel Israel Angell's Diary, p. 37, note. 
^General Orders, Ticonderoga, October 3, 1776. In 
American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 1082. 
[ 129 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

the North the lieutenant's act of kindness could 
hardly have merited severity, except as it injured 
discipline in other regiments. In the South more 
was expected ; Captain Barnard Elliott's Diary 
has this entry ; 

" The Lieut. Col. cannot think the Major 
could so far have overlooked the officers' com- 
mand and authority as to order Shepherd (a pri- 
vate) to take a power only due to an officer ; 
he assures the regiment that in future if an officer 
suffers his prerogative to be trampled upon which 
he ought to support, he will be considered by 
him as a man wanting in that essential which 
constitutes the officer." ^ The practical results of 
the doctrine of equality, when put in force, were 
occasionally made evident by disorder and mu- 
tiny.^ 

While the lack of a proper difference in pay 
for the officer and the private may have justified 
in the mind of the private this attitude of equal- 
ity, it could not have been the dominating in- 
fluence among the troops from New England, if 
it was among those from the middle and south- 
ern colonies. Washington calls it " one great 

^Charleston Year Book, 1889, p. 256. 

^ Case cited by Colonel Weissenfels, July 6, 1776. In 
American Archives V., vol. i, col. 41. 
[ 130 ] 



Officer and Private 



source of familiarity." ^ But the farmer of to-day 
is more jealous of his right of familiarity with 
the rich than with the poor, and more watchful 
as his neighbor prospers. To his reasoning a 
larger income brings no enlarged prerogative in 
social affairs. Where social distinctions were 
closely observed, as in the South, a marked differ- 
ence in pay was more essential to the manage- 
ment of the rank and file. But the difficulty 
existed, and Washington wrote to the president 
of Congress, September 24, 1776: "While those 
men consider and treat him [an officer] as an 
equal, and, in the character of an officer regard 
him no more than a broomstick, being mixed 
together as one common herd, no order nor dis- 
cipline can prevail."^ 

What was the governing cause of this trou- 
ble? Many have answered the question in 
much the same words. Captain John Chester, of 
Connecticut, soon after the experience at Bunk- 
er Hill, commented upon the fear of all officers, 
" from the Cap* General to a corporal," that 
the people would brook no exercise of authority, 
and added the significant words : " The most of 
the companies of this Province [meaning Massa- 

^ Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 141. 
2 Ibid., vol. 4, p. 443. 

[ 131 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

chusetts Bay] are commanded by a most Despic- 
able set of officers." ^ 

One explanation needs no proof to convince 
us of its truth. Where officers depended for 
their commissions upon their ability to raise com- 
panies or to persuade companies to serve under 
them, the test was of popularity and not of mil- 
itary skill. It proved impossible in Massachu- 
setts for many men to play the double role of 
recruiting officer and disciplinarian before the 
same body of soldiers with success. Several of- 
ficers who would have made excellent privates or 
officials in civil employment were turned out of 
the army in disgrace before the war was fairly 
begun. 

If discipline depends upon those in command, 
what could be expected at Bunker Hill of a 
company whose captain ordered the men to 
march into battle, promising to " overtake them 
directly," and never appearing until the next 
day ^ ^ "I have," said Washington, " already 
broke one Col°. and five Captains for Coward- 
ice, or for drawing more Pay & Provisions than 
they had Men in their Companies." ^ General 
Lee and Captain Chester both speak of the ab- 

1 Boston in 1775 (Ford), p. 15. 

"^ Ibid., p. 14. ^ Ibid., p. 29. 

[ 132 1 



Officer and Private 



sence of officers from Bunker Hill, of lack of 
discipline, and of readiness to retreat among 
many companies of privates who had not so 
much as a corporal to command them.^ 

Men who had had little or no discipline at 
home needed a strong hand in camp, but a hand 
that they could respect. " As to the materials 
(I mean the private men)," wrote Charles Lee, 
" they are admirable — young, stout, healthy, zeal- 
ous, and good humor'd and sober. " ^ " But," to 
quote Joseph Hawley, " there is much more 
cause for fear that the officers will fail in a day 
of trial than the privates." ^ It was the officers 
who failed in their duty (if failure there was) at 
Bunker Hill ; "* they were the drill-masters on the 
green, but when the best stuff of the town was 
put under them and they were no longer merely 
drill-masters but leaders, they could not fill the 
measure. They were not always gentlemen, in 
so far as that term implies leadership in thought 

1 Boston in 1775 (Ford), pp. 14, 23. 

2 Lee to S. Deane, July 20, 1775. In Boston in 1775 
(Ford), p. 22. 

3 Hawley to Washington. In Washington's Writings (Ford), 
vol. 3, p. 18. 

^Washington, July 21, 1775. In Ibid., vol. 3, p. 32. 
See also Dr. Belknap's opinion, in Massachusetts Historical 
Society Proceedings, June, 1875, p. 92. 

[ 133 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

and action. Some were petty, mercenary, over- 
bearing, and themselves ill-trained to obey their 
official superiors. " These N. England men," 
said Lee, the professional soldier, " are so defec- 
tive in materials for officers, that it must require 
time to make a real good army out of 'em." ^ 
The same sentiment was voiced in almost the 
same words by another famous general of the 
war, Nathanael Greene. " We want nothing," 
he said, " but good officers to constitute as good 
an army as ever marched into the field. Our 
men are much better than the officers."^ It would 
not be well to condemn many for the failings 
which were too evident in a few ; but the testi- 
mony of men like Lee and Greene suggests that 
when the private fell short in discipline and 
obedience, as frequently happened, he was not 
alone at fault. 

The charge was once made that the rank and 
file served for money, while the liberties of Amer- 

1 Lee to R. Morris, quoted in Washington's Writings 
(Ford), vol. 3, p. 215. Ebenezer Huntington held a sim- 
ilar opinion ; see a letter dated June 29, 1775, in American 
Historical Review, July, 1900, p. 705. Graydon, in a 
rather unpleasant spirit, emphasizes the lack of men of the world 
and those of " decent breeding " among New England officers. 
(Memoirs, p. 157.) 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 44I. 

I 134 ] 



Officer and Private 



ica were preserved by the patriotism of officers. 
In this connection a half-serious remark of Wash- 
ington's, reported by an officer' at Valley Forge, 
seems applicable. " So many resignations of of 
ficers," said he, " that his Excellency expressed 
fears of being left alone with the soldiers." ^ These 
resignations, if we may believe Colonel Reed, were 
sometimes prompted by cowardice. " I am sorry 
to say," he writes in 1776, " too many officers from 
all parts leave the army when danger approaches. 
It is of the most ruinous consequences." ^ A fail- 
ing among officers which was happily much less 
common than mediocrity or even cowardice was 
that of theft or embezzlement. The soldiery 
were nearly helpless in the hands of those who 
withheld the pay of their men from month to 
month until mustered out of service or brought 
to book by a court-martial.^ The New Hamp- 
shire committee of safety — to mention a single 
case — voted August 6, 1776, that Lieutenant 
Gilman pay over to his men the coat -money 
which he had the previous year received for 

^ Dr. A. Waldo's Diary ; in Historical Magazine, June, 
1861, p. 169. 

2 American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 1036. 

^ Ibid., vol. 2, col. I 128. The case of Captain Byers 
(col. 1278) is typical. 

[ 135 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

them and had declined to deUver.^ It would be 
unfair, perhaps, to assume that these malprac- 
tices were more evident in the revolutionary 
army than in any other army of volunteers ; and 
it should be said that the self-sacrifice and hero- 
ism shown by officers all over the Colonies did 
much to put spirit into the rank and file. 

An officer's ability to command carries with it 
a presumption that there is good discipline and 
obedience in the ranks. John Adams complained 
that soldiers loitered along the country roads 
and idled in the taverns.^ In camp also, from 
time to time, there was a lack of discipline; sol- 
diers were known to be on friendly terms with 
the enemy,^ and careless sentries allowed their 
guns to be stolen while they were on duty."* 
The practice of hiring one's duties done by an- 
other did not sweeten the lot of the poorer sol- 
dier,^ although this could hardly have been of 
frequent occurrence. Refusing to do duty, or 
threatening to leave the army,*^ were not uncom- 

' American Archives V., vol. i, col. 609. 
2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 438. 
^ Ibid., vol. 3, p. 26. Also Army Correspondence of Col- 
onel John Laurens, p. 70. 

■^ Orderly Book of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga, p. 108. 
5 Essex Institute Collections, vol. 14, p. 63. 
^Colonel William Henshaw's Orderly Book, p. 58. 

[ 136] 



Officer and Private 



mon breaches of discipline, brought about often 
by the unreasonable conduct of officers. Tim- 
othy Burnham, corporal, for keeping " Seymore " 
on sentry from six o'clock in the evening until 
seven the next morning, was reduced to the 
ranks.-^ Moses Pickett " for disobedience of or- 
ders and damning his officer " was sentenced to 
receive thirty lashes and afterward to be drummed 
out of the regiment.^ The firing of guns in and 
about the camp was a constant annoyance that 
could not be stopped, and during the siege of 
Boston, British soldiers, hearing frequent reports 
followed by no casualties, came to ridicule 
American marksmanship.^ Many of these acts 
of insubordination, however, are common to all 
armies. 

In the winter of 1780-81, the mutiny of 
the Pennsylvania line, consisting at that time of 
six regiments, was one of the serious events of 
the war. The men were in huts near Morris- 
town under the command of General Wayne ; 
many of them had been engaged for the ambig- 
uous term of " three years or the war," and now 
feared that they might be pressed to serve beyond 

^ Essex Institute Collections, vol. 14, p. 206. 

2 Colonel William Henshaw's Orderly Book, p. 81. 

3 Ibid., p. 63. 

[ 137 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

the three-year period of their enlistment. At a 
time when recruits were receiving large bounties 
for short service, their own pay was already many 
months in arrears, their food was poor and insuf- 
ficient, and their ragged clothes were filthy. Re- 
ports were current that officers had used the men 
cruelly, but these carried little or no weight. 
The first day of the new year was celebrated with 
an undue allowance of spirits, and soon the men 
were ready to be stirred to rebellion by the pict- 
ure of their sufferings artfully drawn by dema- 
gogues. Between nine and ten o'clock of the 
same evening the mutiny broke out under the 
lead of Sergeant Williams, a deserter, poor, and 
fond of drink. A number of officers were killed 
or injured in a futile attempt to restore order, and 
the men with six pieces of artillery set off for 
Princeton. They marched with " an astonish- 
ing regularity and discipline," allowing General 
Wayne and two of his officers to accompany 
them. On the second day Wayne asked for a 
conference with one man chosen by the soldiery 
from each regiment, hoping, as he said, " soon to 
return to camp with all his brother soldiers who 
took a little tour last evening " ; ^ but the rank 
and file would not listen to his proposals, and the 

' Stille's Wayne, p. 252. 
[ 138 1 



I 



Officer and Private 



mutineers marched again on the 4th. Wash- 
ington, meantime, apprised, of events, was using 
every effort to bring about an agreement ; he asked 
of the States a suit of clothes for each man and 
three months, pay. Clinton, of the British army, 
was not idle ; he sent a message, addressed " To 
the person appointed by the Pennsylvania line to 
lead them in their present struggle for their lib- 
erty and rights," in which he offered to protect 
them, pardon any of their number for past of- 
fences, pay them what was due from Congress, 
and leave them free to give up military service if 
they wished. These were generous terms offered 
by the mother-country to her sons in rebel- 
lion. As they recalled their privations, and 
the uncertainty of their fate when they should 
again be in the power of Congress, they could 
hardly be expected to disappoint Clinton. Yet, 
as they put it, they preferred not " to turn Ar- 
nolds." ^ The Committee of Congress and Gov- 
ernor Reed, for the Council of Pennsylvania, of- 
fered terms which the mutineers accepted. The 
men who had enlisted indefinitely for three years 
or for the war were to be discharged unless they 
had voluntarily reenlisted, and where the orig- 

1 Wayne. Quoted in Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 
9, p. 97. 

[ 139 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

inal papers were not to be had the oath of the^ 
soldier was to be sufficient evidence. Certificates 
for the depreciation on their pay were to be 
given, and arrearages were to be made up as soon 
as possible. Clothing — a pair of shoes, overalls, 
and a shirt — was to be furnished as indicated in 
the proposals. Finally, no man was to be brought 
to trial or censured, but the past was to be buried 
in oblivion.^ When these negotiations were 
completed the British spies were given up and 
executed. Many of the men, according to 
Washington's letter to Steuben, dated February 
6, 1781, took the oath before the proper papers 
could be procured, and by perjury got out of the 
service.^ The New "Jersey Gazette^ in a discussion 
of the revolt, remarks that the satisfactory con- 
clusion " will teach General Clinton that, though 
he could bribe such a mean toad-eater as Arnold, 
it is not in his power to bribe an American sol- 
dier."^ The unfortunate affair was not without 
other lessons, for men who could not be bribed 

^Stilld's Wayne, p. 257. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 9, p. 123. See Haz- 
ard's Register of Pennsylvania, vol. 2 ; Marshall's Life of 
Washington (1805), vol. 4, p. 393 ; Remembrancer, vol. 1 1, 
p. 148. 

3 Gazette, January 17, 1781. In F. Moore's Diary, vol. 

2, p. 374- 

[ 140 ] 



JL 



LIBERTY TREE 



.AN APPl 




Probably a Massa- 
chusetts flag. 

After an old print. 



AN APPEALTO HEAVEN 



Jk_ 




The flag of Massa- 
chusetts. 

A white ground with a pine 
tree in the centre. 




.*(«- Flag carried by 
j the Bedford Militia 
Company, at Con- 
I cord Bridge. 

" It was originally designed in England in 1660-70, for the three county troops of 
Middlesex, and became one of the accepted standards of the organized Militia 
of the State, and as such it was used by the Bedford Company." 

WiLLi.\M S. Appleton, Mass. Hist. Society. 




Flag carried by the 
American Army 
through the South 
at the beginning of the Revolution. 




First naval flag. 

A yellow flag with a rattle- 
snake in the act of striking. 



Officer and Private 



needed the best efforts of the commissary de- 
partment in their behalf The restless element 
wanted a firm hand, also, if the loyal majority 
was to remain obedient. 

A few months later, at Yorktown, twelve plot- 
ters stepped out before the regiments and per- 
suaded the men to refuse to march because the 
promises made to them had not been kept. 
Wayne then addressed them earnestly and called 
upon a platoon of soldiers to fire either upon him, 
who, with his officers, had been humiliated by the 
former disgrace, or upon the instigators of this 
fresh mutiny. At the word of command they 
presented and fired, killing six of the twelve 
leading rioters. One of the remaining six was 
badly maimed, and Wayne ordered a soldier 
to use his bayonet. This the man refused to 
do, claiming that the mutineer was his comrade. 
The general instantly drew his pistol, and would 
have shot the soldier had he refused longer to 
carry out the order. General Wayne then 
marched the regiments about the lifeless bodies, 
and ordered the five remaining mutineers to be 
hanged.^ 

In a recent work on the French army, Decle's 

1 Livingston to Colonel Webb. In Washington's Writings 
(Ford), vol. 9, p. 267. 

[ 141 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

" Trooper 3809," there is evidence of much fric- 
tion between company officers and men. While 
something of the kind was suggested as the cause 
of the mutiny of the Pennsylvania Hne, this rumor 
never gained credence ; the want of clothing and 
food was too evident a source of discontent. 

The following order of General John Rutledge 
of South Carolina, in 1776, bears upon the rela- 
tions between officers and their men, and it has 
the right spirit ; it reads : " Any officer that shall 
strike a soldier at any time hereafter, whatsoever 
the provocation may be, such act of striking shall 
be imputed as an act of cowardice, save the 
Major and Adjutant [do it] and that tenderly 
and in the way of their particular duty."^ 

^ Captain B. Elliott's Diary ; in Charleston Year Book, 
1889, p. 209. 



[ 142 ] 



VI 

Camp Duties 

THE soldier's life was not passed in idle- 
ness. Uniforms and arms required daily 
attention before the hour for parade, and 
the endless duties connected with cooking, ob- 
taining fuel, and caring for the camp provided 
work for all. Day in camp began at sunrise with 
the beating of the reveille, or earlier when some 
important movement was to be executed. Not 
infrequently the exact moment of dawn was un- 
known and the tired men were called from their 
beds in the dark. Day was said, however, to have 
begun when a sentry could see clearly a thousand 
yards around him, "and not before."* To farm- 
ers' sons, unaccustomed to shave frequently, to 
put powder upon their hair, or to brush their 
clothes, a constant regard for personal appear- 
ance became at once oppressive. During the 
period of late sunrise the men were instructed to 
shave in the evening that they might be ready 

^ Colonel William Henshaw's Orderly Book, p. 53. 
[ 143 ] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

for parade in the morning ; ^ and their canteens 
were to be filled at night whenever there was 
reason to expect an early departure from camp 
or an attack.^ 

In the opening years of the war many pickets, 
from ignorance of military life or from careless- 
ness, brought trouble upon themselves; some 
went back to their quarters to get provisions, 
leaving their posts unprotected,^ others sat down 
in comfort under trees, and, as just stated, were 
so negligent that their guns were stolen from 
their keeping.^ Colonel Crafts at one time threat- 
ened to punish those who persisted in relieving 
themselves from duty without the presence of a 
corporal.^ In September, 1775, the following 
description of military duty appears in a letter 
written by a Southern rifleman at Prospect Hill : 
" On Thursday at firing the morning Gun we 
were ordered to Plow'd Hill, where we lay all 
that day — I took my paper & Ink along as you 
once desired I would, but found so much to do 
beside writing, that you had only a few lines 

1 Orderly Book of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga, p. 26. 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 219. 

3 Colonel William Henshaw's Orderly Book, p. 47. 
^ A. Lewis's Orderly Book, p. ■]■]. 

5 Essex Institute Collections, vol. 14, p. 64. 

[ 144 ] 



Camp Duties 

manufactured (in the face of 18 battering Can- 
non) ; . . . there was too much noise for 
writing & the Generals appearing in sight I 
tho't it not quite so decent a Posture of a SOL- 
DIER, thrust my writing materials under an old 
Blanket, Shouldered my firelock, and strutted 
with all the parade of a careful Lad." ^ 

As the autumn of 1775 wore on the men be- 
came accustomed to the routine and were more 
alert, although some failed to remember the 
proper password or countersign, since it was 
changed every night. A single sentinel demanded 
the countersign only, but the sentry next to 
the guard, upon hearing someone approach, de- 
manded, " Who goes there '? " and if many were 
in view he called to the sergeant of the guard, 
who ordered out his men under arms. When 
officers made the grand round the sergeant de- 
manded the parole — a watchword not known to 
the guard — which he repeated to his captain. If 
the parole was given correctly he cried, " Grand 
round pass." ^ General Ward's selection of the 
parole and countersign- was intended to impress 

1 Letter of Jesse Lukens ; in Boston Public Library, His- 
torical Manuscripts, No. i, p. 26. 

2 Major Ennion Williams's Journal, Pennsylvania Archives, 
2d series, vol. i 5, p. 19. 

[ 145 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

wisdom upon the lonely sentinel, who was forced 
to remember the words if he was unwilling to 
accept their lesson. The parole Industry was 
given with the countersign Wealth, Neatness with 
Gentility, Inoculation with Health. In time of dan- 
ger the parole Look out with the countersign 
Sharp must have suggested to the sentinel the 
path of duty. ^ 

At Valley Forge there was a chain of sentinels 
which surrounded the camp at the distance of a 
mile ; the men were relieved daily.^ The fol- 
lowing entry in Sergeant Wild's journal while 
at Warwick, R. I., illustrates very well the per- 
formance of guard duty. " At sundown," he 
writes, " I carried my men to roll call. After the 
rolls were called I mounted guard with sixteen 
men under my command. I marched with my 
men about 2 miles towards the Point, where I 
left my guard. At 1 1 o'clk I sent a corporal 
and four men out as a patrolling party, which 
went down to the Point and all round the shore. 
They discovered nothing remarkable. Came in 
again about l o'clk, at which time I sent out an- 

^ Colonel I. Hutchinson's Orderly Book ; in Massachusetts 
Historical Society Proceedings, October, 1878, p. 340 et seq. 

2 T. Blake's Journal, in Kidder's First New Hampshire 
Regiment, p. 40, 

[ 146 ] 



Camp Duties 

other party, which went the rounds as before and 
came in about three o'clk ; at which time I sent 
another party, which went the rounds as usual 
and came in between 4 & 5 o'clk, and then 1 
sent another party, which patrolled till daylight 
and then came in with the other corporal and 
four men from the Point. I went to the com- 
missary's, and got a gill of rum p"^ man. After I 
gave it to them I dismissed them." ^ 

Guard service in all kinds of weather, and 
sometimes in places of great danger, was not the 
least trying part of the soldier's routine, follow- 
ing, as it often did, days of great bodily exertion 
and fatigue. He who fell asleep while on duty 
was punished by twenty lashes on the bare back, 
or more if the enemy was near enough to make 
the crime a dangerous one.^ The hardships 
which were endured called occasionally for a rec- 
ommendation of clemency by a court-martial, as, 
for instance, in the case of George Cook, who 
was tried in 1777 for sleeping at his post. Cook 
had been ill of a fever for several days and unable 
to sleep ; the fresh air of his lonely vigil brought 
relief, and he was found fast asleep, standing at 

^ E. Wild's Journal, in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Proceedings, October, 1890, p. 121. 

2 Orderly Book, of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga, p. 56. 

[ 147 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

his place of duty.' When a sentinel deserted to 
the enemy he became the subject of comment ; 
" old countrymen," as the soldiers of foreign birth 
were called, never quite gained the confidence of 
the army, and if a man who was reported as 
" gone over to the enemy " was known to be an 
old countryman the fact was emphasized among 
the rank and file after the evening roll-call.^ 

Washington preferred " natives " for sentinels, 
and later he chose from them his body-guard.^ 
He insisted that officers should place as sentinels 
at the outposts those whose characters were thor- 
oughly known. " He therefore orders that for 
the future, no man shall be appointed to those 
important stations who is not a native of this 
country, or who has a wife or family in it, to 
whom he is known to be attached." ^ Washing- 
ton was driven to prefer Americans for officers, 
also, when the tide of adventurers from across the 
sea set in so strongly that it threatened to carry 
Congress with it and drive the native officers 
into retirement. Lafayette, however, he contin- 

^ Putnam's General Orders, August lo, 1777 (p. 52). 

2 E. Wild's Journal ; in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Proceedings, October, 1890, p. 96. 

3 Washington's Revolutionary Orders (Whiting), p. 35. 
* Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 6. 

[ 148 ] 



Camp Duties 

ued to treat with an affection very like that of a 
father for his son. 

Honor and kindness, while by no means un- 
known in war time, were not as common in the 
Revolution as the best military standards demand. 
Cases might be mentioned which did no credit 
to royalist or colonist. " About 8 o'clock," wrote 
John Clunes in March, 1779, "the Rebels sent 
in a Flagg of truse to us [the British], but Gen. 
Powell would not see [it] and ordered us to fire 
on them which we did and out of 5 killed 3."^ 

British treatment of the enemy's outposts was 
sometimes cruel and uncalled for. The follow- 
ing note by Lieutenant Eld, of the Coldstream 
Guards, describes an experience of his in New 
Jersey : 

" I was sent forward with 60 Light Infantry 
to attack a rebel Picquet on the right of the 
main body of the rebels who were advantageous- 
ly posted & fortified in a Church Yard at a 
place called Paramus. The Picq* was placed at 
the edge of a wood with a plain of half an mile 
in the rear, — I surprised the Picq^ which instant- 
ly fled & the most famous chase over the plain 
ensued — we were in at the death of seven. — I 
had given orders that my Party should not fire 

'Note to G. Pausch's Journal (1886), p. 151. 
[ 149 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

but use their Bayonets." ^ After reading these 
words it may be well to recall an incident which 
is recorded in Simcoe's Journal, for it shows that 
all the inhumanity was not confined to King 
George's men : 

" The rebels continually fired at night on the 
centinels. ... A figure was dressed up with 
a blanket coat, and posted in the road by which 
the enemy would probably advance, and fires re- 
sembling a piquet were placed at the customary 
distance ; at midnight the rebels arrived, and fired 
twenty or thirty shot at the effigy. . . . The 
next day an officer happening to come in with a 
flag of truce, he was shown the figure and was 
made sensible of the inhumanity of firing at a 
sentinel when nothing farther was intended." ^ 
This was not an isolated case, for David How's 
Diary, under date of October 28, 1776, states that 
riflemen fired at the sentries of the regulars while 
the British army lay in sight, at or near White 
Plains.^ 

The danger which a sentry encountered came 
almost wholly from the sabre and the musket- 

^ Boston Public Library Bulletin, January, 1892, p. 314. 
■^J. G. Simcoe's Military Journal, p. 173. 
3 How's Diary, p. 35. See also Heath's Memoirs (1798), 
pp. 62,63. 

1 150 ] 



1 



Camp Duties 

ball; but a curious exception recorded by the 
Rev. Benjamin Boardman should be noticed 
here. On Monday night, July 31, 1775, the 
enemy opened fire upon the Continentals from 
their works in Roxbury, and a cannon-ball came 
through the air so close to a sentinel that the 
man was set to whirling like a top. He soon 
fell to the ground, but was found to be only 
slightly injured,' A month earlier a soldier died 
from the "wind of a ball," as it was called.^ 

Camp life was not devoted wholly to drill or 
picket duty or cooking, although idleness was 
discouraged. Cutting wood, building fires, re- 
pairing huts, cleaning arms, waiting upon offi- 
cers, tramping a road through the brush to facil- 
itate the hauling of firewood,^ serving in the 
" grass guard " to watch and protect the horses 
while feeding,'* or making cartridges,® were use- 

^ Boardman's Diary, in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Proceedings, May, 1892, p. 400. See also Boston Public 
Library, Historical Manuscripts, No. i, p. 28 ; the wind from 
a twenty-four-pounder knocked down a man and horse. 

2 John Trumbull's Autobiography, New York, 1841, p. 21. 

^ E. Wild's Journal, December 27, 1778 ; in Massachusetts 
Historical Society Proceedings, October, 1890. 

^ A. Lewis's Orderly Book, p. 10. 

^ Essex Institute Collections, vol. 14, p. 190; also Lewis's 
Orderly Book, p. 48. 

[ 151 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

ful services which kept the privates out of mis- 
chief. The construction of earthworks, building 
of whale-boats,^ and other occupations incident to 
a campaign, filled the men's time while in more 
active service. In the expedition to Crown 
Point under Arnold, all hands were employed 
on occasion in necessary work ; men were di- 
vided into squads, some to bake bread, some to 
go in search of game or to spend their time in 
fishing, others to cut timber or mount can- 
non.^ In South Carolina seines were provided 
for the Continental troops that were detailed 
to fish.^ 

Temporary field-works of earth were not in 
favor in Europe a century and more ago ; they 
were held to be unmilitary and to foster coward- 
ice. But the defences thrown up at Bunker 
Hill in a night proved effective in checking the 
British advance ; the firelock behind loose earth 
weighed heavily against disciplined bravery, and 
the lesson once learned, the Continentals en- 
tered more and more into the construction of 



^ Colonel Hutchinson's Orderly Book, p. 23. 

2 B. Arnold's Regimental Memorandum Book, June 14, 
1775- 

^Captain B. Elliott's Diary, in Charleston Year Book, 1889, 
p. 231. 

[ 152 ] 



Camp Duties 

such works.-^ The Hnes were first marked on the 
ground in the angular forms so often shown in 
illustrated histories covering this period. The 
gabions (" stakes interwoven with twisted bun- 
dles of switches, like baskets without bottoms") 
were then set on the lines, three or four deep, 
and earth dug up alongside was thrown in. 
Fascines (" bundles of switches about six feet 
long ") were then piled up on the outside and 
inside, and were held in place by stakes, four 
feet long, driven down through them ; more fas- 
cines were laid on top of the gabions, and the 
whole was then covered with earth, and with 
sod. In the space between the foot of the outer 
slope and the ditch or fosse, which was a cus- 
tomary part of the works, wooden pickets were 
frequently planted, as was the case at Bunker 
Hill in October, 1775. Redoubts sometimes 
had as additional works half-moon structures or 
transes, as at Prospect Hill.^ Farmers accus- 
tomed to handle the spade soon grew experienced 
in this form of labor. 

' C. F. Adams's Bunker Hill ; in American Historical 
Review, vol. i, pp. 411, 412. 

~ Major Ennion Williams's Journal ; in Pennsylvania Ar- 
chives, 2d series, vol. 15, pp. 16—19. -^^ White Plains Gen- 
eral Heath made three serviceable redoubts of earth and corn- 
stalks. (Memoirs, 1798, p. 82.) 

[ 153 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Expert artisans were called upon to make 
paper for bank-notes,^ print proclamations, and 
provide many articles in constant demand. These 
men were usually excused from all other duties, 
and found it to their advantage to exhibit their 
ability when called upon.^ The dearth of skilled 
artisans in America is well illustrated by the 
petition presented to Congress in 1776, in which 
sundry paper-makers prayed that Nathan Sellers 
of Colonel Paschall's battalion might be ordered 
home " to make and prepare moulds, washers 
and utensils for carrying on the paper manufac- 
tory." ^ The " gunbarrel-maker," the saltpetre- 
maker, and he of the " nailer's business " were in 
such demand that they could hardly be spared 
for military service.'^ Forges had been set up 
all over the Colonies, giving employment to 
iron-workers and gunsmiths. The latter were not 
numerous, and a few of these accepted the bait or 
bribe of high wages in England, offered by leading 
royalists, and left the country.^ Some of the sol- 
diers were ordered to act as servants to their offi- 

' Washington's Orderly Book kept at Valley Forge (Griffin), 
p. 5. 

2 A. Lewis's Orderly Book, p. 19, 

3 Journals of Congress, August 26, 1776. 
^American Archives V., vol. i, col. 1062. 

5 Weeden's Economic and Social History, vol. 2, p. 795. 

[ 154 ] 



Camp Duties 

cers ; but as this kept many able-bodied men from 
active service and led to abuses, it was discontin- 
ued by general orders at Valley Forge in 1778.^ 

Knowledge of music was also in demand. In 
the Boston campaign the drums and fifes of each 
regiment were regularly instructed' by the regi- 
mental drum-major and fife-major, and their 
music stirred the men as martial music does to- 
day.^ When drums were not to be had, French 
horns were used;^ In the campaign of 1779 
against the Six Nations two men were cut down 
by the Indians' tomahawks ; later Colonel Proc- 
tor ordered his musicians, in passing the spot, to 
play the touching air of Roslin Castle, " the soft 
and moving notes " of which cast a hush upon 
the regiment and awakened pity for their com- 
rades.'* The Pioneers March was another tune 
used at the time.^ The memory of one master 
of the drum should be kept green, for he helped 
to while away many tedious hours during the 
Northern campaign of 1776. Tibbals was his 



G 



1 Washington's Revolutionary Orders (Whiting), p. 91. 

'■^ Colonel Hutchinson's Orderly Book ; in Massachusetts 
Historical Society Proceedings, October, 1878, p. 347. . 

3 Captain B. Elliott's Diary, in Charleston Year Book, 1889, j 
p. 241. 

* Rev. William Rogers's Journal, p. 35. 

^ A. Lewis's Orderly Book, p. 12. 

[ 155 ] 



lihe Private Soldier Under Washington 

name, and as the boatmen sang at their oars — 
they were upon the lake — he would give one 
touch upon the drum which seemed to bring 
every voice into harmony.^ The soldiers, halt- 
covered with water as they lay in the boats, for- 
got the loneliness and gloom of the darkening 
night; the music lingered in each man's memory 
long after the voices and drums were still. It is 
probable that Yankee Doodle had little or no 
vogue in the army, and the statement by An- 
burey that the lively air was " a favorite of fav- 
orites . . . the lover's spell, the nurse's lullaby" 
is open to serious question.^ At funerals the im- 
pressive tune Funeral Thoughts, with its drum-beat 
at the end of each line, was sometimes played.^ 

Washington made use of the artisan in the 
army whenever it was possible, but there were 
many occasions when capable hands were able to 
turn a penny after the soldier's day had closed. 
Early in the war, barter and private labor pre- 
vailed among the thrifty to a surprising degree ; 
men worked at their trades during the hours be- 

^ Rev. A. R. Robbins's Journal, pp. i8, 43. 

^T. Anburey's Travels, vol. 2, p. 50. Thacher's Military 
Journal, p. i 28. 

3 Rev. B. Boardman's Diary, in Massachusetts Historical 
Society Proceedings, May, 1892, p. 411. 
[ 156 ] 



Camp 'Duties 

tween the Retreat, which beat at sunset, and the 
Tattoo, which was sounded at eight or nine 
o'clock.^ The makers of shoes, leather breeches, 
or caps earned money, and by their work aided to 
some extent the efforts of the Colonies to clothe 
the army. David How, a private at the siege oi 
Boston, bought and sold cider, chestnuts, arms, 
and clothing. A few lines from his diary will 
show the busy life that a soldier might lead when 
not on duty : 

25 day [January, 1776]. I Bought 7 Bushels of Ches- 

nuts & give 4 pisterens per bushel. 

30 We have Sold Nuts and Cyder Every Day this 
Weak. 

31 I Bought 4 Bushels of Apels and gave 12s. pr 
Bushel for them. 

22 [February]. Peter gage Staid Hear Last Night 
and I Bought 3 pare of Shoes of him @ 5/6 per 
pare. I Bought a pare of Stocking And give 
5/4 for them. 

23 I Sold a pare of Shoes for 6/8. 

26 I Sold my Cateridge box For 4/6 Lawfull money. 

^ At the same time British soldiers earned money by working 
for the inhabitants of Boston, although this was contrary to 
orders. (Diary of S. Kemble, Lieutenant-Colonel Sixtieth 
Foot; in New York Historical Society Collections, 1883, p. 
72.) Private work is still carried on where one might least 
expect to see it, by sailors on British men-of-war. (F. T. 
Bullen, in the Spectator, September 9, 1899.) 

[ 157 J 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

At the time he carried on this trading he was 
quartered in one of the buildings at Harvard 
College, and did his share of fatigue, made car- 
tridges, ran ball, and even served his turn as 
cook for the company.^ 

A curious agreement, made between a soldier 
and a land-owner near camp, stipulated that the 
former was to clear a certain tract of land fit for 
mowing, and was to receive $100 paper currency, 
but if head-quarters moved before he had finished 
the work, he was to receive payment for what he 
had done.' 

Among the many duties incident to army life 
the observance of Sunday as a day for religious 
teaching was not forgotten. Washington him- 
self impressed upon the men under his command 
the value of Christian character, and his own 
example must have aided the chaplains in their 
difficult labors. 

Public prayers were a part of the daily or Sun- 
day routine, followed by the reading of orders, 
and usually the roll-call.^ Washington's attitude 
toward religion in the army was unmistakably 

■ David How's Diary, p. 4 et seq. 
^ Elijah Fisher's Journal, p. i i . 

^ Rev. William Emerson, in Washington's Writings (Sparks), 
vol. 3, p. 491. 

[ 158 ] 



Camp Duties 

set forth when he said : " To the distinguished 
character of a Patriot, it should be our highest 
glory to add the more distinguished character of 
a Christian." ^ And Congress, ready to promote 
the same ideals, voted September ii, 1777, to 
import twenty thousand Bibles ; it is curious to 
notice that all the members from New England 
were in favor of the measure, and all those from 
the Southern States, except Georgia, were record- 
ed as against it, although Lee of Virginia and 
Laurens of South Carolina were with the North. 

A chaplain, who, it is said, "prayed and sang 
with the brigade," has described the preparation 
made for services : " The music march up and 
the drummers lay their drums in a very neat style 
in two rows, one above the other ; it always takes 
five, and often the rows are very long; occasion- 
ally they make a platform for me to stand upon, 
and raise their drums a number of tier." ^ The 
sermon on Sunday, usually at eleven, was often 
of a practical nature; it referred to the hardships 
and the duties of a soldier; it urged upon him 
temperance and vigilance, cleanliness and honesty. 
In many cases, as in those cited herewith, the min- 
ister altered the text to suit his need. Rev. John 

1 Washington' s Revolutionary Orders (Whiting), p. 75. 
~Rev. A. R. Robbins's Journal, p. 37. 
[ 159 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Gano, who was attached to Clinton's division of 
the expedition against the Six Nations in 1779, 
was asked to preach to the troops at Canajoharie, 
and was requested " to dwell a little more on 
politics " than he usually did. He preached 
from the words of Moses : 

" Come, go thou with us, and we will do thee good ; 
for he that seeketh my life, seeketh thy life, but with us 
thou shalt be in safeguard." ^ 

Rev. Mr. Kirtland preached September 15, 
1776, to the New Jersey troops at Fort Schuyler 
from the text, " He that is not with me is against 
me ; and he that gathereth not with me, scatter- 
eth abroad." ^ Upon the 4th of July, Mr. Gano 
took for his text these words : " This day shall be 
a memorial unto you throughout your genera- 
tions." ^ But these suggestive sermons did not 
always attract the men, and even when they were 
present discipline was not maintained as rigidly as 
would be the case to-day. To increase the audi- 
ence a penalty was once imposed for absence from 

^A practical adaptation from i Samuel xxii. 23. 

2 Lieutenant E. Elmer's Journal; New Jersey Historical 
Society Proceedings, vol. 3 (1849), p. 25. The reading 
in Matthew xii. 30, "with me," was changed by the minister 
to '* for me," perhaps to strengthen his text. 

^ From Exodus xii. 14. 

[ 160 J 




Hunting shirt (made from a model of the Revolutionary period) of 
home-spun linen. Vest made from a model of that period showing 
lacing in back instead of a buckle. 

(Originals owned by James E. Kelly.) 



1 



Camp Duties 

worship : a few hours spent in digging out stumps 
in a New York woodland proved effective.^ It 
should be said in defence of the men that the 
preaching was not always worth a hearing. Mr. 
Bliss, said a fellow clergyman, preached at Cam- 
bridge August 20, 1775, "from those words in 
Deut. 23, 9-14, and had he have digested his sub- 
ject might have done v/ell, but attempting to ex- 
temporize, // was as it was" ^ The critic himself, 
however, rather outdid Mr. Bliss on the following 
Sunday, when, as he records, he preached the en- 
tire day ; but perhaps he had relays of listeners, 
and not one weary throng, as might be inferred ^ 
Rev. Mr. Gano was a serviceable preacher. 
When he was informed that many of the soldiers 
before whom he was to preach on a certain Sun- 
day were six and nine months men, whose depart- 
ure from the army would be unfortunate, he told 
his listeners that " he could aver of the truth that 
our Lord and Saviour approved of all those who 
had engaged in His service for the whole warfare." 
The rank and file were much amused, and those 

' Rev. John Gano's Biographical Memoirs (New York, 
1806) ; also Historical Magazine, vol. 5, p. 332. 

^Rev. B. Boardman's Diary; Massachusetts Historical So- 
piety Proceedings, May, 1892, p. 403. 

3 Ibid., p. 404. 

[ 161 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

who had " engaged for the whole war " forced 
many short-term men by their jesting to re-enhst. 

But the laugh was not always on the ministers' 
side. During the winter at Valley Forge many 
parsons were at home, as the men were too poorly 
clad to stand in the cold and listen to preaching. 
Mr. Gano was away on leave ; when he returned 
to camp he asked a soldier how his commander 
and the men had fared. The soldier replied 
gravely that they had suffered all winter without 
hearing the Word of God. Mr. Gano explained 
that it was their comfort he had had in mind. 

" True," said the soldier, " but it would have 
been consoling to have had such a good man near 
us." Deeply touched, Mr. Gano told General 
van Cortlandt of his encounter. Van Cortlandt, 
a little later, asked to have the soldier pointed 
out to him, and was surprised to see the worst 
reprobate in the regiment.^ 

1 P. van Cortlandt's Autobiography ; in Magazine of Amer- 
ican History, May, 1878, p. 296. 



[ 162 ] 



VII 

Camp Diversions 

RUMORS of victory or defeat lent a pleas- 
ant excitement to the lives of the rank, 
and file. A story of the patriot campaign 
in Canada was passed on, together with official 
dispatches, from one post-rider to another along 
the almost impassable river-routes of Maine, over 
the stony roads of Massachusetts and Connecti- 
cut, through the Tory settlements of New York, 
and so southward to the Congress at Philadel- 
phia; the dispatches reached their destination 
unchanged except for a coating of grime and 
wet, but the verbal story grew with each retell- 
ing until the last post-rider had news to astonish 
those about the camp-fires. The official news was 
printed upon handbills, which were given out to 
the men.' 

The effect of good tidings is shown in a some- 
what famous scene. When the stores from the 
captured ship Nancy arrived in the camp near 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 6, p. 65. 
[ 163 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Boston, there were demonstrations of joy. The 
scene as pictured by Colonel Moylan is some- 
what startHng : " Old Put [General Putnam] 
was mounted on the mortar, with a bottle of rum 
in his hand, standing parson to christen, while 
godfather Mifflin gave it the name of Con- 
gress." ^ 

Bands of prisoners of war and captive Tories, 
passing through the camp, awakened patriotic en- 
thusiasm, which found expression in shouts from 
the men; and the coming of well-known or cu- 
rious visitors — delegates from Congress, sent to 
inspect the army, or Indian chiefs and their fol- 
lowers — helped to while away the hours. The 
impression made by such events is illustrated in 
the record in a soldier's diary that " the King of 
the Ingans with five of his Nobles to attend him 
come to Head Quarters to Congrattulate with his 
exelency." ^ 

For many years June 4th, the King's birthday, 
had been celebrated in America; and when the 
day was allowed to pass in camp with no festiv- 
ity and no mirth, even the rebel in arms could 
not but notice this sorry end of a time-honored 

1 Quoted m The Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, 

J758-75. P- 83. 

~ David How's Diary, p. 12. 

[ 164 ] 



Camp Diversions 



custom.^ When September 22d, the King's 
coronation day, was referred to as the King's 
" Damnation day," war had indeed come.^ 

The great day was the Fourth of July, com- 
monly called the anniversary " of our Independ- 
ency." Few diaries fail to mention with some 
detail the usual ceremonies of the occasion. The 
whole army was drawn up under arms at one 
o'clock, with detachments of artillery interspersed 
and thirteen pieces at the right. The celebration 
began with a discharge of thirteen shots for the 
States, followed by a running fire of musketry 
and cannon from right to left through the front 
ranks, and then from left to right through the 
second line, repeated three times. A speech 
sometimes followed, and then three cheers from 
the entire army.^ Games and an extra allowance 
of rum closed the day. On the British prison- 
ships, where all the horrors of starvation, suffo- 
cation, and disease were rife, the day brought a 
speech or a feeble cheer.* 

1 Lieutenant Isaac Bangs's Journal, p. 39. 

^Daniel McCurtin's Journal ; in T. Balch's Papers ( 1857), 
p. 17. 

^ Henry Dearborn's Journals, p. 18 ; Washington's Writings 
(Ford), vol. 7, p. 482 ; Feltman's Journal, p. 6 ; T. Blake's 
Journal, p. 43. 

■* Martyrs of the Revolution in British Prison-ships, p. 20. 

[ 165 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Another favorite anniversary was that of the 
clay of Burgoyne's surrender, which was celebrated 
by the firing of cannon, the throwing of sky- 
rockets into the air ("skilokets in the are "), and 
much merrymaking.^ When the welcome news 
was received that France had declared for the 
United States, the delighted troops cheered for 
the King of France, the " Friendly powers " of 
Europe, and the thirteen States ; every Continen- 
tal soldier under arrest in Washington's army was 
set at liberty to enjoy the day.^ On more than 
one occasion a soldier under sentence of death 
profited by the news that the French King had 
shown his friendship for the Colonies or that a 
distant battle had been won. 

But the successes of the British bore hard upon 
the men in the patriot army; and sometimes even 
those in captivity were made to know that their 
captors had won a victory. Major Griffith Will- 
iams, in command of the detachment of Royal 
Artillery with Burgoyne, ordered that the Amer- 
ican prisoners be drawn up in the rear of the 
British lines, to hear the " feu de joye " given in 
honor of Burgoyne's victories. Some, it is said, 

' Elijah Fisher's Journal, p. lo. 

^ Ibid., p. 8; also T. Blake's Journal, in Kidder's First 
New Hampshire Regiment, p. 4 1 • 
[ 166 ] 



Camp Diversions 



were stung by the insult, while others threw up 
their caps with the British and were roughly 
handled by their more loyal comrades.^ 

The customary holidays were not forgotten ; 
Christmas and Thanksgiving Day brought greater 
liberties and an extra allowance of liquor.^ 
Even St. Patrick's Day produced a noticeable 
change in camp ; ^ the Irishmen who had been 
born in America or had settled in the country 
before the war began were reenforced in some 
regiments by deserters from the British lines.^ 
The widow Izard, a prominent lady in the South, 
honored the name of St. Patrick in 1782 by a 
i gift of a gill of spirits to each soldier in General 
Greene's army. A little later the same army cel- 
ebrated May Day with May-poles and festivities, 
although this was declared to be " something ex- 
traordinary," as indeed it must have been.^ 

Victories and anniversaries brought merriment 

' Hadden's Journal, p. 102. Hadden did not approve of 
Major Williams's treatment of American prisoners. 

^ H. Dearborn's Journals, 1776-83, p. 25. 

^ Ebenezer Wild's Diary ; in Massachusetts Historical So- 
ciety Proceedings, October, 1890, p. 133. 

■* Kemble's Journal (New York Historical Society Collections, 
1883) mentions Irish deserters from both armies. 

^ W. McDowell's Journal ; in Pennsylvania Archives, 2d 
series, vol. 15, pp. 314, 321. 

[ 167 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

and noise, with their accompaniment of drinking 
and cursing. Congress occasionally showed an 
interest in these celebrations and sent the inevi- 
table present of rum ; thirty hogsheads were con- 
sumed by the gallant survivors of the battle of 
the Brandywine.' 

But there were other forms of amusement in 
camp. The men played ball or cards, and now 
and then were allowed a " rifle frolic " — a contest 
in marksmanship in which the vanquished was 
bound to treat his more skilful adversary to liq- 
uor.'^ A form of relaxation not so clearly under- 
stood is mentioned by private Samuel Haws as 
" an old fudg fairyouwell my friends." ^ During 
the winter of 1775-76, which was bitterly cold 
at the north, men enjoyed skating on the rivers 
and ponds ; ^ and in summer they bathed when- 
ever it was possible.^ They sometimes were 
able to get away into the country to fish, hunt, 
and to gather nuts,^ but these privileges were 
more often granted to ofBcers.^ 

^ Journals of Congress, September 12, 1777. 
"^ Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, p. 77. 
3 Ibid., p. 80. " Ibid., p. 90. 

^ Colonel W. Henshaw's Orderly Book, p. 72. 
^ Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, p. 77. 
■'A. Lewis's Orderly Book (Richmond, i860), p. 65; 
also Feltman's Journal. 

[ 168] 









'// 






V, "■« 



'-7? i^^ 



Company leceipi lur pay hhuwing the ability of the private to write. 
(Original owned by the Boston Public Library.) 



Camp Diversions 



Nothing so depressed the spirits of the sol- 
diers as the inactive life of a camp far removed 
from the enemy. A spice of danger vi^as always 
welcome. To train the raw recruits to be fear- 
less under fire a trifling reward was offered for 
bringing to head-quarters each cannon-ball which 
was thrown from the enemy's batteries. It was 
found, however, that the younger men failed to 
gauge properly the force and weight of a ball 
that ricochetted slowly along the uneven ground ; 
several soldiers in using their feet to bring a ball 
to a stop were knocked down or crippled. This 
plan had to be given up.^ When the shells 
from Boston fell into the camp at Roxbury, 
shrieking like " a flock of geese," they did more, 
said an observer, " to exhilarate the spirits of our 
people than 200 gallons of our New England 
rum." Each shell as soon as it burst was sur- 
rounded by a throng of men, eager for memen- 
toes.^ 

Funerals, someone has said, must be counted 
with amusements in a description of uneventful 
country life. The chastisement of wrong-doers 
may likewise fall into line with the diversions of 

'John Trumbull's Autobiography (1841), p. 19. 
^ Jabez Fitch's Diary; in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Proceedings, May, 1894, p. 45. 

[ 169 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

camp-life, without great impropriety ; for the 
curious modes of punishment in vogue at the 
time afforded some relaxation, if they did not 
convey the obvious lesson. The moral to be 
taken to heart by the onlookers was weakened by 
the frequent reprieve of the culprit ; and this 
misfortune was only too well understood by the 
officers.^ One hundred lashes — the limit of cor- 
poral punishment allowed — made little impres- 
sion upon the spirit of a sullen and wilful trans- 
gressor.^ To give a hundred lashes their proper 
value and importance, standing, as they did, for 
the penalty next to death itself, many serious 

1 The articles of war were approved by the Continental Con- 
gress June 30 and November 7, 1775. Article LI. reads: 
That no persons shall be sentenced by a court-martial to suffer 
death, except in the cases expressly mentioned in the foregoing 
articles ; nor shall any punishment be inflicted at the discretion 
of a court-martial, other than degrading, cashiering, drumming 
out of the army, whipping not exceeding thirty-nine lashes, fine 
not exceeding two months' pay of the offender, imprisonment 
not exceeding one month. 

The articles approved for the army September 20, 1776, 
directed in Section XVIII,, Article 3, that corporal punishment 
should not exceed 100 lashes. 

2 One hundred lashes could be made very effective, as in the 
case of one Burris, who received fifty lashes a day for two suc- 
cessive days, and then was well washed with salt and water. — 
Washington's Revolutionary Orders, edited by Whiting, March 
25, 1778. 

[ 170 I 



Camp Diversions 



crimes that needed severe treatment had to be met 
with inadequate punishment. The result as it 
worked out in practice was that the death penalty 
was too often imposed, and this led to reprieves. 
Another unfortunate outcome of the system was 
the invention of new punishments, more or less 
cruel or savage, when officers became exasperated 
by desertions and mutiny.^ 

A corporal and two privates were making their 
escape from the First Pennsylvania Regiment 
when they were overtaken and captured. After 
they had been secured a dispute arose ; some of 
the captors wished to kill all three on the spot, 
without trial and without authority ; others coun- 
selled delay. It was agreed finally to kill one 
of the three deserters immediately ; the three 
luckless fellows drew lots and fate selected the 
corporal, whose head was at once cut off and 
placed upon a pole. This grewsome object was 
carried into camp by the surviving captives, to 
be placed over the camp gallows as a warning 
to all.*^ 

1 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 9, p. 128. The Brit- 
ish army regulations of to-day do not permit more than twenty- 
five strol<es at a time. See Wyndham's Queen's Service, pp. 
243, 245. 

2 William Irvine to Wayne, July 10, 1779; in Philips's 
Historic Letters. 

[ 171 ] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

If there can be any excuse for such savagery it 
is to be found in the jeopardy of a great cause 
by desertions from an already inadequate army. 
Washington once wrote : " Our army is shame- 
fully reduced by desertion, and except the 
people in the country can be forced to give 
information when deserters return to their old 
neighborhoods, we shall be obliged to detach one 
half the army to bring back the other." ^ 

In the country about New York many of the 
inhabitants were from principle or interest trim- 
mers in those uncertain times. Men when draft- 
ed were slow to respond to the call, and many, 
after enduring the hardships of camp-life for a 
time, returned home to aid a sick or impoverished 
household. They had perhaps begged in vain 
for an honorable discharge, telling, as others did 
throughout the Colonies, of little ones without 
food or firewood ; ^ and when they appeared in 
town again the neighbors beheld the deserters 
with tolerance or with half-kindly eyes. In a 
letter written at Rhinebeck, September 16, 1776, 
John White said : " I suppose there are not less 
in this and Northeast Precinct than thirty [de- 

^ Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 5, p. 211. 
2 American Historical Review, July, 1900, p. 721. 

[ 172 ] 







-^^^ ^.?'^^/ 










yJiu^y^f!^,^ 











Receipt signed by the Ipswich minute-men who marched on tlie alarm 
of April 19. 1775. 

(Original in the Emmet collection in the Lenox Library, New York.) 



Camp Diversions 



serters], who keep in the woods, and are sup- 
ported by their friends."^ 

Ebenezer Wild in his Revolutionary journal 
refers frequently to punishments, and it is evi- 
dent that they interested him by their variety and 
terrible reality. Upon one occasion the culprits 
marched to the place of execution to the strains 
of the " Dead March," each one with his coffin 
borne before him. The brigade was then pa- 
raded, with the guilty men in front where they 
could be seen ; after this their death sentences 
were read in a loud voice. Their graves were 
dug, the coffins were laid beside them, and each 
man was commanded to kneel beside his future 
resting-place in mother earth while the execu- 
tioners received their orders to load, take aim 
and 

At this critical moment a messenger appeared 
with a reprieve which was read aloud.^ This 
last all-important act in the series was omitted 
often enough to strain the nerves of everyone 
present, by leaving the result in doubt until the 
last instant. 

^ American Archives V., vol. 2, col. 352. 
^ E. Wild's Journal ; in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Proceedings, October, 1890, p. 119. 

[ 173 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

The whip was in some cases serviceable, 
although it had little effect upon the hardened 
offender, tied to a tree or post, who ground his 
teeth into a piece of lead and received the sting- 
ing blows in silence. When the prescribed num- 
ber of stripes was administered in instalments, the 
flesh of the victim had time to become inflamed 
or to heal partially before the full penalty had 
been inflicted.^ 

Corporal punishment was carried out by the 
drummers and fifers under the eyes of the drum- 
major, who was required to be present.'"^ Sev- 
enty-eight lashes were considered proper for a 
deserter and thirty-nine for a thief — a survival of 
the Mosaic number — but there was no invariable 
rule.^ For writing " an infamous letter " against 
Colonel Brewer a soldier was sentenced to stand 
in the pillory for an hour where his comrades 
might witness his humiliation and suffering ; in 
less than an hour he fainted.^ Mr. Wild, our 
faithful chronicler, describes another scene — a 
soldier marching from the guard-house to the 

1 James Thacher's Military Journal, p. 223. 

2 Ibid., p. 222 ; also Heath's General Orders, June i i, 1777. 
^ St. Paul said : Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes 

save one — II. Corinthians xi. 24. 
^ Paul Lunt's Diary, p. 13. 

[ 174 ] 



Camp Diversions 



gallows with a halter about his neck, and from 
there running the gauntlet naked through the bri- 
gade.^ Usually the brigade was drawn up in two 
lines to form a narrow lane (sometimes half a mile 
in length), through which the culprit had to pass 
to receive the lashing from switches held by the 
men. If he was unpopular he fared ill ; if he 
was liked by his comrades and was fleet of foot 
he suffered but little. To make the gauntlet a 
serious penalty a soldier was ordered to point his 
bayonet at the guilty man's breast and back 
slowly down between the lines so that progress 
could not be too rapid for adequate punishment.^ 
This ingenious device served to lay the victim 
on his bed for days.^ At Ticonderoga a band of 
mutinous sailors ran a species of maritime gaunt- 
let ; they were sentenced to receive seventy-eight 
lashes each, " the criminals to be whip'd from 
vessell to vessell receiving Part of their Punish- 
ment on Board of each."^ A more cruel pun- 
ishment than most of those just mentioned was 

' E. Wild's Journal ; in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Proceedings, October, 1890, p. 122. 

2 Rev. William Rogers's Journal, p. 123 ; James Thacher's 
Military Journal, p. 223. 

3 E. Hitchcock's Diary ; in Rhode Island Historical Society 
Publications, January, 1900, p. 211. 

^ Orderly Book of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga, p. 59. 

[ 175 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

that of riding the wooden horse, which so injured 
the man that some officers refused to make use 

But there were penalties that afforded real 
amusement, as in the case of Bowen, sentenced to 
wear " a clogg chained at his legg " three days,^ 
or in that of Griffith, guilty of selling Major 
Carnes's cordage, " to wear a clog four days with 
his coat turn'd rong side outwards." ^ 

1 Paul Lunt's Diary, p. lo ; How's Diary, p. 32 ; A. M. 
Earle's Curious Punishments, p. 128. 

2 Essex Institute Collections, vol. 14, p. 67. 
^ Ibid., p. 195. 



[ 176 ] 



VIII 

Hospitals and Prison-Ships 

THE Scylla and Charybdis of the soldier 
were the hospitals of his own army and 
the prison-ships of the enemy. Perhaps 
the knowledge of this made the life in camp and 
on the road more endurable than it would other- 
wise have been. To see the dawn over a hill- 
top drove out the depression that comes with the 
night, and to stand in the full radiance of the 
warm sun at noonday baffled malaria and stayed 
the march of disease. But the sun and the stars 
never came to the sufferer upon his sick-bed, 
nor often to the half-crazed, half-naked creature 
in his marine prison-pen. 

The health of the men in camp was not for- 
gotten, although the means of checking contagion 
and alleviating pain were inadequate, and many 
of the household remedies of to-day were then 
still to be discovered. In continued bad weather 
a half gill of rum was issued to each of the 
men, and they were cautioned against drinking 
[ 177 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

new cider and also the water of streams forded 
during the heat of the day.^ The air of the huts 
and tents was purified by burning the powder of 
a blank musket cartridge daily, or by lighting 
pitch or tar;^ the hospitals were treated in the 
same manner. 

In many of the hospitals where there were few 
beds or blankets and no medicine or nurses, the 
service was not much more than the presence of a 
doctor until death came. Colonel Wayne, writing 
to General Gates in December, 1 776, said : " Our 
hospital, or rather house of carnage, beggars all 
description, and shocks humanity to visit. The 
cause is obvious; no medicine. or regimen on the 
ground suitable for the sick ; no beds or straw to 
lay on ; no covering to keep them warm, other than 
their own thin wretched clothing."^ At this time 
the deaths came so rapidly that the living grew 
weary of digging graves in the frozen earth, " A 
scene something diverting, though of a tragic nat- 
ure," as Lieutenant Elmer puts it, occurred in con- 
sequence. Two graves had been dug with much 
labor by men of the New Jersey line for their 

1 Colonel William Henshaw's Orderly Book, p. 75. 

2 Washington's Orderly Book, May 26, 1778 ; Orderly 
Book of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga, p. 126 

^American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 103 i. 

[ 178 ] 




Surgeon's saw used by Dr. David Jones, who had been a student 
under Dr Joseph Warren. Teeth extractors (owned by . 
Bostonian Society). Flask (owned by Mrs. R. W. Redman). 
RevoUitionarv bullet moulds. 



Hospitals and Prison-Ships 



dead; but when they, having gone for the bodies, 
came back prepared to bury their comrades they 
found that some Pennsylvanians had come upon 
the open graves, and finding no one near, depos- 
ited their own dead there and covered them with 
earth, A hot dispute ensued and the New Jer- 
sey troops succeeded in digging up the other bod- 
ies, which were thrown under a heap of brush 
and stones.-^ 

Good doctors and faithful ministers were rarely 
wanting in the camps ; and they went about 
where men lay tossing from side to side on sacks 
of straw or grass, and did much to comfort the 
sufferers. 

" My heart is grieved," wrote Rev. Ammi R. 
Robbins, "as I visit the poor soldiers — such dis- 
tress and miserable accommodations. One very 
sick youth from Massachusetts asked me to save 
him if possible; said he was not fit to die: *I 
cannot die; do, sir, pray for me. Will you not 
send for my mother? If she were here to nurse 
me I could get well. O my mother, how I wish 
I could see her; she was opposed to my enlist- 
ing: I am now very sorry. Do let her know 
I am sorry!'" Mr. Robbins was a devoted 

^ E. Elmer's Journal ; in New Jersey Historical Society Pro- 
ceedings, vol. 3 (1849), p. 93. 

[ 179 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

chaplain, who had to nerve himself constantly to 
bear the foul air that injured his health and the 
tales of sorrow that burdened his heart. He be- 
lieved that the war was waged in a just cause, 
and when the men of whole congregations went 
out to battle, he felt that ministers should be 
ready to nurse their sick and bury their dead.^ 

At Saratoga an officer from each regiment was 
appointed weekly to visit every day the men 
from his own corps scattered through the hos- 
pitals.'' But this care availed little when medi- 
cine and surgery were not always represented in 
camp by able physicians ; ^ and antisepsis and 
anaesthetics were unknown. Cleanliness in con- 
ducting difficult operations was not insisted upon 
as it is to-day, and the wounds made by large 
round bullets moulded by hand needed the very 
best of treatment.^ Putrefaction and pain ran 
riot in the emaciated bodies of the soldiers, and 
many who survived never regained their health. 

The kind of medicine recommended by a doc- 

^ Robbins's Journal, p. 39. 

2 Orderly Book of the Northern Army at Ticonderoga, 
p. 123. 

3 American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 1584; Massachu- 
setts Historical Society Proceedings, May, 1894, p. 88. 

•* G. L. Goodale's British and Colonial Army Surgeons, 
p. 10. 

[ 180 ] 



Hospitals and Prison-Ships 



tor's wife may prove of interest. From a sol- 
dier's description of his sick friend's condition she 
thought the trouble might be " gravels in the 
kitteney," as the diarist wrote the name, and she 
ordered a " quart of ginn and a tea dish of mus- 
ter seed, and a hand full of horseradish roots — 
steep them togather and take a glass of that every 
morning." The gallant fellow submitted to this 
new affliction, and happily was able to report 
that " he found benefit by it." ^ The truth is that 
much of the illness came from a longing to be at 
home, from hunger, and from cold. Referring 
to,the first of these causes of army sickness, Gen- 
eral Schuyler once said : " Of all the specifics 
ever invented there is none so efficacious as a dis- 
charge, for as soon as their faces turn homeward 
nine out of ten are cured." ^ For the other tenth, 
just referred to, the remedy used at Valley Forge, 
mutton and grog,^ proved to be as useful as any- 

1 Elijah Fisher's Journal, p. 5. 

2 Schuyler to Congress, November 20, 1775 ; Lossing's 
Schuyler (1872), vol. I, p. 466. Dr. Rush held to the view 
that many New Englanders deserted on account of homesick- 
ness. When Gates met Burgoyne's army the excitement was a 
strong power that overweighed fear and longing for home, so 
that desertions for a kw weeks almost ceased. (Massachusetts 
Magazine for 1 79 1, p. 284.) 

2 Dr. A. Waldo's Diary; in Historical Magazine, May, 
1861, p. 133. 

[ 181 ] 



\J 



The Private Soldier Under Washingto?t 

thing to aid in resisting the germs of disease that 
everywhere threatened the camp with pestilence. 
In the Quebec expedition, when exposure and 
hunger had prepared the way, a fourth or third of 
the men in some regiments died of small-pox.^ 

From the records of the general hospital at 
Sunbury, Penn., for 1777-80, it appears that 
about four-tenths of the patients (not counting 
the convalescents) were the wounded ; about 
three-tenths suffered from diarrhoea or dysentery, 
and one-tenth from rheumatism.^ To state this 
in another form, lack of proper food and shelter 
crippled the army as much as did the fire of the 
enemy. The number of cases treated, however, 
was not large enough to give very accurate sta- 
tistics. 

The sick suffered from crowding and from an 
insufficient supply of medical stores ; those on 
the upper floors of hospitals had little or no ven- 
tilation, and at Bethlehem four or five invalids, 
one by one, occupied the unchanged straw until 
death came like an angel of mercy.'^ It is per- 

^ Charles Gushing, in American Archives V., vol. i, cols. 
128-132. See also letter of Council of Massachusetts to 
Ward, July 9, 1776, ibid.y col. 146. 

2 Pennsylvania Magazine, April, July, 1899, pp. 36, 210. 

^ Dr. William Smith; in Pennsylvania Magazine, July, 1896, 
pp. 149, 150. 

[ 182 ] 



Hospitals and Prison-Ships 



haps not very strange that communities did not 
want army hospitals, and the arrival of open 
wagons in which lay groaning soldiers, wet with 
rain and snow, was the signal for vigorous pro- 
tests from the populace. As soon as the patients 
were able to walk they were told that there was 
too little food to make a longer stay desired, 
and they were sent out penniless and weak to 
walk the country roads, begging from house to 
house.-' This in itself was an objection to the 
presence of a hospital in a neighborhood. 

In such a state of poverty the support of a 
minister seemed an expense that could be avoid- 
ed, and few were found in the hospitals at New 
Windsor, West Point barracks, Morristown, 
Albany, Philadelphia, Fishkill, Yellow Springs, 
Williamsburg and Trenton, where many were 
often needed.^ 

Sickness and inadequate hospital facilities had 
a very direct effect upon the conduct of the war. 
Every haggard soldier who returned to the village 
of his birth was a silent force, decreasing enlist- 
ments and increasing the amount of bounty to be 
wrung from the taxpayers ; this was particularly 

^ Director-General Cochran ; in Magazine of American His- 
tory, September, 1884, p. 249. 
'■* Ibid., p. 257. 

[ 183 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

true at the South in the winter of 1776-77.^ 
The commissariat was the great arbiter of events 
during the Revolution; insufficient food caused 
disease and desertion, crippHng the army until 
Washington was forced to keep to a Fabian 
policy that irritated those who were unfamiliar 
with the obstacles in his path. 

If the Continental soldier in the hospital of his 
countrymen had reason for discontent, he might 
well believe that he would fare even less happily 
in the hands of the British, who rarely were able 
to make adequate provision for their prisoners. 
After the retreat from New York in 1776 the 
churches of the town were crowded with starv- 
ing Americans ; some with dull eyes and parched, 
speechless lips sat upright and sucked bits of 
leather or wood — the last act of a reason almost 
extinct, and others lay upon the bodies of their 
comrades, gnawing bones and begging their 
keepers to kill them.^ While the helpless creat- 
ures were in this condition the sentries were said 
to have annoyed them needlessly.^ The descrip- 

^ Washington to Congress; in his Writings (Ford), vol. 5, 
p. 241. 

^E. Allen's Narrative, p. 34. 

^American Archives V., vol. 4, col. 1234. See also E. 
Fisher's Journal, p. 23. 

[ 184 ] 



Hospitals and Prison-Ships 



tion of prison-life in Philadelphia during the 
British occupation is too ghastly to be credible in 
all its details. Dr. Albigence Waldo, of Wash- 
ington's army, who has been quoted frequently in 
these pages, complained that the enemy did not 
knock their prisoners in the head, or burn them 
with torches, or flay them alive, or dismember 
them as savages do, but they starved them slowly 
in a large and prosperous city. One of these un- 
happy men, driven to the last extreme of hunger, 
is said to have gnawed his own fingers up to the 
first joint from the hand before he expired ; others 
ate the mortar and stone which they chipped 
from their prison-walls, while some were found 
with bits of wood and clay in their mouths which 
in their death-agonies they had sucked to find 
nourishment.^ 

One must keep in mind the fact that nearly all 
contemporary authorities were influenced by the 
bitter spirit of the times to over-color their pict- 
ures of the suffering which came with war. 
There were frequent complaints of cruel treat- 
ment of prisoners from the commanders of both 
armies, British and American, and each side hoped 
to profit by the publicity given to harrowing de- 

1 Dr. A. Waldo's Diary; in Historical Magazine, May, 
1861, p. 132. 

[ 185 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

tails. At about the time Americans were endur- 
ing privation in New York, in the autumn of 
1776,, an event occurred at the north which 
proves that the British could show a magnanim- 
ity that might become dangerous to the cause of 
independence. Arnold's brave attempt to check 
the advance of Sir Guy Carleton on Lake Cham- 
plain had ended in a furious naval fight and 
Arnold's retreat. The American sailors taken by 
Carleton were treated like friends by the com- 
mander and his men. News came to Gates that 
they had been sent down the lake in boats to his 
camp, and Colonel Trumbull was accordingly 
instructed to meet them. Trumbull soon found 
that the men were enthusiastic over their recep- 
tion by Carleton and loudly praised the generosity 
of the British. In alarm he hastened back to tell 
Gates that the men would work mischief with 
their tales of a bountiful enemy if allowed to 
mingle with the soldiers of the army. Trumbull's 
view was approved, and the surviving captives 
were at once ordered southward to Skenesboro on 
the way to their homes.^ 

The prison-ships were perhaps less oppressive 
in summer than the city places of confinement; 

^John Trumbull's Autobiography (New York, 1 841), pp. 
34-36. 

[ 186 1 



Hospitals and Prison-Ships 



but at best they were unclean, strictly guarded, 
and insufficiently supplied with food and medi- 
cine.^ Many deaths occurred daily, and on board 
the Jersey (popularly known as Hell) the morn- 
ing salutation of the officer was : " Rebels, turn 
out your dead I " ^ The horrors of those days have 
been pictured so often that it is unnecessary to re- 
sketch the sickening details. The living and the 
dead lay together in the stifling holds of the ships 
until the time came to bury the latter. These 
were put beneath the sand on the beach near by, 
and in the next severe storm they were washed 
back into the sea to float for days in the hot sun 
near the port-holes of the prison-ships. In warm 
weather one man was allowed on deck each night, 
and the prisoners crowded about the grating at 
the hatchway to get a breath of air and to be 
ready when their turn came to go out. The 
sentinels thrust their bayonets through the grating 
in sport, and sometimes, it is said, killed one of 
their prisoners.^ 

Lest these scenes in the lives of the captive 

1 American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 1138. 

'■^Pennsylvania Packet, September 4, 1781 ; in F. Moore's 
Diary of the American Revolution, vol. 2. 

^ Martyrs of the Revolution in the British Prison-Ships in the 
Wallabout Bay, p. 19. 

[ 187 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

soldiers seem too incredible, it may be well to add 
the experiences of a man of letters who was famous 
in his day and is not altogether forgotten in our 
time — Philip Freneau, the poet of the Revolution. 
Freneau spent some time in the prison-ship 
Scorpion which lay in the North River in 1780. 
The conditions there were so terrible, according 
to the poet, that any plan of escape, however 
likely to fail, was tried; while every attempt in- 
creased the brutality of the Hessian jailers who 
were held responsible for their detention. When 
a number of men had rushed upon the sentries, 
disarmed them, boarded a vessel near by and 
escaped, the guards in their chagrin vented their 
anger upon the remaining prisoners by firing into 
the hatchways. 

Freneau soon came down with a fever and was 
transferred to the hospital-ship Hunter. Some 
convalescents on board waited one day the com- 
ing of the doctor ; when he had gone below they 
slipped into his boat as it lay alongside, and made 
a successful escape. The doctor was annoyed 
and after that, regardless of the sick and dying 
who had no part in the plan, he passed by the 
Hunter at a distance on his rounds. An appeal 
for "blisters," too loud to be ignored, one day 
caused him to rest on his oars; he looked up at 
[ 188 ] 



Hospitals and Prison-Ships 



the eager faces, suggested pleasantly that the suf- 
ferers plaster their backs with tar, and rowed on 
to the ill-famed Jersey.^ 

In a characteristic letter, written in 1780, from 
Passy, Dr. Franklin told Mr. Hartley, a peace- 
loving Englishman, that Congress had investi- 
gated these barbarities and had instructed him to 
prepare a school-book, to be illustrated by thirty- 
five good engravings, each one to picture a 
" horrid fact " that would impress the youthful 
posterity in America with the enormity of British 
malice and wickedness.^ 

While patriot soldiers were suffering in city 
prisons and on the water many captives were be- 
ginning years of confinement in Old Mill prison 
near Plymouth, England, and at Forton Gaol, 
outside Portsmouth. Usually they fared reason- 
ably well, although forty days in a black hole, 
with half-rations and no resting-place but the 
damp stones, seems a severe penalty for attempt- 
ing to escape, or for commenting unfavorably on 
the quality of the meat.^ Isolated cases of bar- 
barity were condemned in London newspapers, 

^ Philip Freneau's Capture of the Ship Aurora (1899), pp. 

31-43- 

2 Franklin's Works (Bigelow), vol. 7, p. 5. 
^Charles Herbert's Journal, edited by Livesey, p. 84. 

[ 189] 



T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

and the frequent visits of Mr. Hartley, M.P., 
and Rev. Thomas Wren, of Portsmouth, to Amer- 
ican prisoners, kept punishment within proper 
bounds. The people of London in December, 
1777, subscribed ^3,815 17s. 6d. to provide cloth- 
ing and other necessities. A weekly allowance 
of two shillings from the American envoys was 
invaluable so long as it could be maintained, but 
in 1778 this was unavoidably reduced. The fare 
occasioned comparatively little protest, although 
Franklin, in his letters, complains that those who 
were not sold into service under the African or 
East India Companies were cheated by public 
prison contractors.^ In 1780 he provided six- 
pence per week for each of the four hundred or 
more Americans, and as his countrymen were 
not permitted an equal allowance with the French 
and Spanish prisoners (being rebels), the money 
was very welcome. In the following year Eng- 
lish generals sent home great numbers of cap- 
tives; and Franklin's efforts to effect an exchange 
were thwarted by the caprice of British officials. 

1 Franklin's Works (Bigelow), vol. 9, pp. 108, 109. See 
also American Archives V., vol. i, col. 754—756 ; Timothy 
Connor's Journal, edited by W. R. Cutter, in New England 
Historical and Genealogical Register, July, 1876, p. 345, July, 
1878, pp. 280, 284 ; Gentleman's Magazine for 1778, p. 43. 

[ 190 ] 



Hospitals and Prison-Ships 



Many remained captive in England for as long a 
period as four years, and when the general act for 
an exchange was passed, in the winter of 1782, 
there were more than a thousand Americans held 
for high treason in England and Ireland.^ 

The prisoners in some cases were allowed to 
make trinkets, which they sold to visitors, and 
they occasionally succeeded in sending letters to 
their friends. The news which was allowed to 
filter in was usually bad news, such as the final 
defeat of the Continentals, or the death of Wash- 
ington, 

In considering the British treatment of Amer- 
ican prisoners in America some allowances must 
be made. The British army managed to cling to 
the sea-coast of the continent, but could not pro- 
vide a suitable place in which to confine able- 
bodied captives who were ready at any time to 
effect an escape or to co-operate with an attempt 
made by the rebels to rescue them. The length 
of the war, also, bore hard upon the British sol- 
diers, three thousand miles from home, and in- 
creased an irritation which perhaps received its 
first impulse from the regular's natural contempt 
for the volunteer in rebellion against the King. 

1 Franklin's Works (Bigelow), vol. 7, pp. 96, 306, 307, 
451. 

[ 191 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

There were two ways of relief open to the pris- 
oner in British hands, one at the sacrifice of his 
honor, another by the injury of his own cause : he 
could enlist under the crown, stifle his conscience, 
and take his chance of capture as a deserter ; or 
he could — if fortunate — be exchanged for the red- 
coat in an American prison. Few of the better 
soldiers of native birth were willing thus to obtain 
freedom by service under the King; and the ex- 
change of privates for privates operated so strongly 
to the advantage of the British forces that confer- 
ence after conference could find no mutually sat- 
isfactory basis of agreement, and the prison-ships 
kept their burden. These prisoners, who had all 
the claims of humanity upon their side, were for 
the most part too enfeebled to be fit for further 
service, and some were levies called into the field 
for short periods. When exchanged, therefore, 
the sick would have to be discharged by Wash- 
ington, and many of the able-bodied men, having 
reached the end of their terms of enlistment, would 
go home. The British captives, on the other 
hand, were better nourished, and less subject to 
disease ; as they were in the regular army, they 
would remain in America, or be sent to do garri- 
son duty in the place of troops that were being 
[ 192 ] 



Hospitals and Prison-Ships 



trained for service in the Colonies.^ So it hap- 
pened in this way that when Congress was hard 
pressed to keep in the field a force not too con- 
spicuously inferior to the enemy, an exchange of 
prisoners was clearly a misfortune for every reason 
except that of humanity. As an exchange was 
a most practical means of " giving comfort to the 
enemy," the privates who endured year after year 
the hardships of prison and prison-ship, instead of 
going free, were serving their country as truly as 
if they had been in the field. 

^Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 8, p. 340; vol. 9, 
p. 445. Officers could be exchanged readily, and Washing- 
ton at one time showed some anxiety to send back General Bur- 
goyne lest ill-health should carry him off and deprive Congress 
of an opportunity to obtain in exchange for him 1,040 privates, 
or their equivalent in officers. — Ibid., vol. 9, p. 219. 



[ 193 ] 



IX 

The Army in Motion 

SPRIGHTLY Sally Wister, arrayed in her 
prettiest clothes, watched Washington's 
army as it moved down the Skippack road 
from Germantown after the retiring red-coats; 
she enjoyed the " drumming, fifing and rattling 
of waggons," and the soldiers no doubt found 
pleasure in looking at her.^ In the bright sun and 
bracing air they made a gallant array; given the 
best of health and favorable roads they could 
march well for a number of miles, but much of 
the time bad roads and poor shoes retarded their 
progress, while broken sleep, wet clothing, or 
insufficient covering at night sapped the vitality 
of the best constitutions and made laggards of 
them all. In rainy weather the baggage train, 
the artillery or the cattle, if they by any chance 
uignt before the men, cut the road to pieces and 
made it next to impossible to march in order. 

' Sally Wister's Journal ; in Jenkins's Historical Collections 
Relating to Gwynedd, p. 279. 

I 194 ] 



The Army in Motion 



A day's march in the Canada expedition was 
frequently as little as ten miles, while in Sullivan's 
campaign against the Indians the day's journey 
varied from less than ten to about twenty miles, 
although it at times rose to forty miles in the 
twenty-four hours.^ Major Norris in his diary calls 
attention to the " most extrordinary march " of his 
men from Tioga to Easton in Pennsylvania, a dis- 
tance of 156 miles, in eight days — nineteen miles 
a day — over a mountainous and rough wilderness, 
with artillery and baggage.^ Better progress could 
be made by infantry when unencumbered ; the 
Maryland companies of riflemen marched near- 
ly 550 miles from Frederick Town (now Fred- 
erick City) to Cambridge in twenty-two days, or 
almost twenty-five miles a day.^ General Greene's 
army in the Southern expedition covered 2,620 
miles from April 16, 1780, to April 19, 1781 
(Morristown to Camden), or about seven miles a 
day, including battles and camping.^ 

Men were often ordered at the Retreat or sunset 

^ Dr. Jabez Campfield's Diary, pp. 119, 121. ^"lii* 

^ James Norris' s Journal ; in Buffalo Historical Society Publi- 
cations, vol. I, p. 249. 

I ^Daniel McCurtin's Journal; in T. Balch's Papers Relating 

'to the Maryland Line (1857), pp. 11, 12. 

^William Seymour's Journal ; in Pennsylvania Magazine, De- x 

cember, 1883, p. 380 ("«]. 7). 

[ 195 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

drum-beat to be ready to march at sunrise. At 
times the brigades paraded at sunrise, grounded 
arms, breakfasted, and if the weather was favor- 
able, struck tents and marched by eight or ten 
o'clock; but occasionally the men fell into line 
at sunrise, were counted off, and marched from 
four to eight miles before breakfast. In the heat 
of the summer " the General " was beat frequently 
as early as two or three o'clock to warn the men 
that they were to march, and " the Troop " an 
hour later for them to fall into line.^ 

It was necessary to halt now and then for the 
artillery and stores to overtake the troops, or for 
the men to rest, wash their clothes, and clean their 
arms. When the long line was again in motion, 
sometimes in single file as happened in Sul- 
livan's expedition, officers, musicians, rank and 

^ E. Wild's Journal, /)^j//,w. Dictionaries differ in their defini- 
tions of Gefiera/ and Troop. Colonel Angell in his Diary (p. io6) 
says : •• The Revelle beat as usual ; the Genl at 5 oClock 
when the tents were struck ; the Assembly at Six when [the] 
troops are paraded ; the March at Seven when they all moved 
forward. " Capt. Barnard Elliott's Diary (Charleston Year Book, 
1889, p. 157) records the order "that when the assembly 
beats, to strike and pack up all the tents, load all the baggage, 
call in the quarter and the rear guards, and to stand to their 
arms." See also p. 236; and p. 245, where the long roll 
summoned the men to roll-call, and "the troop" meant that the 
new guard was to parade. 

[ 196] 



The Ar?ny in Motion 



file, artillery, pack-horses, cattle and camp-follow- 
ers, the spectacle was inspiring. As the 2,000 
pack-horses in this expedition alone covered six 
miles,' it is not difficult to understand that the 
farmer on the lonely frontier might eat his break- 
fast as the first strains of music came down the 
road, do his morning work and sit down to dinner 
as the artillery came in sight, labor in the fields 
and return to his supper as the rear-guard, in 
search of stragglers, passed on. 

The way through the Indian country was often 
picturesque and strange, leading over high, bar- 
ren mountains from which the wide plains, like 
another world, could be seen below, then down 
into wooded ravines, dark and damp with vapor, ^ 
The men noticed the different trees, the pine, 
the elm, the hemlock, the walnut, and turned 
over the soil with their bayonets.^ There was 
much to see as Sullivan marched through the 
country about the present Bradford, Penn., and 
Elmira, N. Y., great stretches of "fine English 
grass," spear-grass or clover,^ and broad fields of 

^ Rev. William Rogers's Journal, p, 77. 
2 Jeremiah Fogg's Journal, p. 10. 
^Dr. Jabez Campfield's Diary, p. 119. 

^ E. Elmer's Journal ; in New Jersey Historical Society Pro- 
ceedings, vol. 2 (1846), p. 48. 

[ 197 1 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

maize, water-melons and pompions;* burning vil- 
lages and smouldering corn-fields were on every 
hand. 

But such an expedition, necessary though it may 
have been, gave no satisfaction to men who sought 
worthy adversaries, and it demoralized those of 
weaker character. " There is," said a surgeon 
who understood the suffering that followed the 
success of their army, " something so cruel in de- 
stroying the habitations of any people (however 
mean they may be, being their all) that I might 
say the prospect hurts my feelings." ^ 

The soldiers passed the mangled bodies of two 
dogs, hung high on poles to appease the evil spirit 
that terrorized the red man and denied him vic- 
tory.^ The Spirit had not stopped the invaders, 
who came upon the Indian camp-fires and villages 
so rapidly that much was left behind in the haste 
of flight. Near a hut they found a child of three, 
weak and hungry but playing with a chicken, 
while a milch cow, left by the not wholly heart- 
less squaw, grazed quietly within sight, ready to 

* Thomas Grant's Journal ; in Historical Magazine, vol. 6, 
pp. 235, 236. 

2 Dr. Jabez Campfield's Diary, p. 121, 

^ James Norris's Journal ; in Buffalo Historical Society Pub- 
lications, vol. I , p. 246. 

[ 198 ] 



ii 



The Army in Motion 



furnish nourishment.^ A feeble old woman, left 
by the Indians to the mercies of the white men, 
received from General Clinton a keg of port and 
some biscuit, although no officer of rank less than 
a field officer had tasted such luxuries for some 
days.^ With this act of kindness must stand bar- 
barities that would be incredible if noticed by a 
single writer only. Lieutenant Barton, in his 
Journal under the date August 30, 1779, says: 
" At the request of Major Piatt, [I] sent out a 
small party to look for some of the dead Indians — 
returned without finding them. Toward morning 
they found them and skinned two of them from 
their hips down for boot-legs, one pair for the 
Major, the other for myself" After reading of 
this pleasant enterprise, which reached its success- 
ful consummation at a place near Cayuga Creek,^ 
it is not impossible to understand Thomas An- 
burey's observation that the Americans loved to 
kiU.^ 

There was, however, a brighter side to the war. 
At " Seneca Castle," in a fertile country, the Ind- 

1 Jeremiah Fogg's Journal, p. 15. 

^William Barton's Journal ; in New Jersey Historical Society- 
Proceedings, vol. 2 (1846), p. 39. 
^Ibid., p. 31. 
■* Anburey's Travels, vol. i, p. 331. 

[ 199 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

ians were supposed to be gathered in force. As 
soon as the troops approached the woods and 
fields in the neighborhood, detachments were sent 
to the right and left and posted just out of sight, 
so that at a signal they could converge, hem in 
the savages, and take the works by storm. Hav- 
ing carefully arranged the details the general set 
out to inspect the lines before ordering an ad- 
vance; as he rode he beheld each soldier with as 
many pompions or melons as his bayonet would 
hold, and each military shirt bulging with beans 
and corn. In his wrath he exclaimed : " You 
damned unmilitary set of rascals I What, are you 
going to storm a town with pompions ? " 

Some two weeks before the above event took 
place, the diarist whose account has been followed 
afforded amusement in a different way. In at- 
tempting to catch a doe which had ventured into 
camp he was knocked down and trod upon by 
the frightened creature in making her escape.^ 
Deer, bears, and wild turkeys were not uncom- 
mon near Tunkhannock, Penn.,^ but as the men 

^Jeremiah Fogg's Journal, pp. 6, 14. 

2 W. Barton's Journal; in New Jersey Historical Society Pro- 
ceedings, vol. 2 (1846), p. 26. Colonel I. Angell in his Diary 
(p. loi) relates that two deer went by his quarters in camp in 
New Jersey, December 12, 1779; the soldiers, not being al- 
lowed to fire, gave chase, but were unsuccessful. 

[ 200 ] 



The Army in Motion 



were not allowed to fire in camp nor break ranks 
when marching, animals had little to fear. Pike, 
chub, gar and suckers were caught in the streams 
near where the army encamped.'^ 

The southern campaigns brought other expe- 
riences. Pretty young women gathered at the 
roadside, says observant William Feltman, their 
faces almost entirely hidden by linen to protect 
them from the burning sun ; and around them, as 
if in contrast, a retinue of blacks without a stitch 
of clothing to cover them.^ A sight much more 
unpleasant, but possibly equally characteristic at 
the time, was that of a negro's head stuck on a 
sapling on one side of the road, and his right 
hand tied to a sapling on the opposite side. The 
negro had been hanged and cut in pieces for kill- 
ing a white man.^ 

The same writer — an officer, but probably not 
more quick to receive impressions in a new coun- 
try than some of the rank and file — comments on 
the lack of pines in North Carolina and Virginia, 
the infrequent meadows, and the flourishing plan- 
tations of the Germans and the Quakers. His 

1 James Norris's Journal; in Buffalo Historical Society Pub- 
lications, vol. I, p. 227. 

^W. Feltman's Journal, p. 5. 
^ Ibid., p. 30. 

[ 201 ] 




T^he Private Soldier Under Washington 

eye noticed the gray owl, the redbird, flocks of 
green paroquets and " samalligators " ; and his 
ear detected sweet-singing frogs.^ 

If these wonders of nature were observed by 
the private soldier, he was less inclined to record 
them in his diary after the weary day's march and 
the meagre supper which followed ; a tale of 
hardship and adventure was more suited to his 
laborious pen, James Melvin, a private in Ar- 
nold's unsuccessful expedition against Quebec in 
^775' ^'^^ described the ascent of the Kenne- 
bec into the heart of the Maine forests, and 
the journey down the Chaudiere to the waters 
of the St, Lawrence, Death and desertion re- 
duced the force of over 1,000 men to some yoo, 
worn out by marches through " hideous woods," 
over mountains, and along the marshy banks of 
rivers, where the men sank into moss and mud, 
striving to haul the camp baggage through ravines 
and intervales. On October 28th they " waded 
knee-deep among alders &:c,, the greatest part of 
the way. , . One man fainted in the water 
with fatigue and cold, but was helped along. We 
had to wade into the water, and chop down trees, 
fetch the wood out of the water after dark to 
make a fire to dry ourselves ; however, at last we 

^W, Feltman's Journal, p, 37, 
[ 202 ] 



The Army in Motion 



got a fire, and after eating a mouthful of pork, 
laid ourselves down to sleep round the fire, the 
water surrounding us close to our heads; if it had 
rained hard it would have overflown the place 
we were in."^ Another member of the expedi- 
tion has described the events of the next day : 
" We had to wade waist-high through swamps 
and rivers, breaking ice before us. Here we 
wandered round all day, and came at night to 
the same place which we left in the morning, 
where we found a small dry spot [and] made 
a fire; and we were obliged to stand up all 
night in order to dry ourselves and keep from 
freezing." 

Three days later the same writer observed : 
[We] "travelled all day very briskly, and at 
night encamped in a miserable situation. Here 
we killed a dog, and we made a very great feast 
without bread or salt, we having been four days 
without any provisions ; and we slept that night 
a little better satisfied. Our distress was so great 
that dollars were offered for bits of bread as big as 
the palm of one's hand." ^ The following day, 
staggering for want of food, they came upon the 

1 James Melvin's Journal, p. 5. 

2 Journal attributed to E. Tolman ; in Massachusetts Historical 
Society Proceedings, April, 1886, p. 269. 

1 203 ] 



'The Pr'ivate Soldier Under Washington 

cattle sent back by Colonel Arnold, who had gone 
on in advance of the party. 

The camp-fire was the soldier's best friend on 
the march ; by it he dried his clothes, and cooked 
his scanty meal ; it protected him from the cold 
in northern countries, and even from prowling 
wild beasts. By its light he cleaned his gun, or 
wrote a few words in his diary for the family to 
read upon his return. While he slept it gave 
light to those who bridged the stream over which 
the army would pass at sunrise.^ But if the 
camp-fire was a protection when the air at night 
was chilled by bleak winds and wet fog, there 
was no remedy for a tropical sun at noon. After 
the battle of Monmouth the army of Washington 
lay at English-Town for two days, and set out 
on July 1st for Spotwood; the weather was 
so warm that nearly a third of the men were 
unable to continue upon their feet until evening, 
and many had to be conveyed in wagons.^ In 
Virginia in 1781 the troops were ordered to cut 
their coats shorter for their greater ease in march- 
ing under the hot sun.^ The heat was somewhat 

^Jeremiah Fogg's Journal, p. i i. 

2 Thomas Blake's Journal ; in Kidder's First New Hampshire 
Regiment, p. 43. 

'^E. Wild's Journal, May 2, 1781 ; in Massachusetts His- 
torical Society Proceedings, October, 1890, p. 137. 
[ 204 ] 



The Army in Motion 



easier to bear than the cold; in the winter those 
who had for shoes strips of rawhide (which were 
passed under the soles and bound to the ankles)^ 
left marks of blood on the snow as they marched.^ 
Even those who had good shoes, sometimes kept 
them on for so long a time that the leather had to 
be cut from their swollen feet. 

The companionship of many men tramping 
together was apt to keep fear from their minds; 
but in passing through dark and lonely valleys at 
night the dread of attack added to the gloom ; 
they sometimes marched in single file, each man 
with his cartridge-box on his knapsack to keep it 
dry in wading deep streams, and when on a dark 
Indian trail each man with his hand on the frock 
of the man before him to guide his steps.^ The 
rain beating ceaselessly upon the leaves overhead, 
and dripping into the pools below ; the wind 
sighing and the wet branches creaking in the 
wind ; then a flash of lightning that revealed a 
line of weary, muddy, plodding men — shut out 
of sight in another instant by the black of night 
and lost in the rumble and roar of thunder; that 

1 The Female Review (Dedham, 1797), p. 158. 

2 Heath's Memoirs (1798), p. 96. 

^Nathan Davis's History; in Historical Magazine, April, 
1868, p. 20Z. 

I 205 1 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

was what a writer had seen when he wrote that 
" fighting happens seldom, but fatigue, hunger, 
cold & heat are constantly varying [the soldier's] 
distress," ^ At such a time panic was ready to 
break forth at any moment. On one occasion in 
Virginia, in May, 1781, the lightning struck near 
a moving column of troops and stampeded the 
horses. The militia thought the enemy were 
upon them, threw down their arms in the muddy 
road where they were, and rushed headlong into 
the woods.^ The rear-guard, which was accus- 
tomed to follow the army to stop stragglers and 
deserters, sometimes performed a like duty over 
the cattle; and to march in the dark behind a 
thousand animals, along a narrow, muddy road, 
already cut to pieces by heavy artillery, was a test 
of patriotism. 

A passage in the Journal of Elijah Fisher de- 
scribes simply and well the hardships which the 
defensive policy of Washington, with its quick 
marches and counter-marches, brought upon the 
private soldier : 

"About Dark it did begun to storm, the wind 
being at the N.E., and the Artillery went before 

^ Dr, Jabez Campfield's Diary, p. 119. 

2 E, Wild's Journal, May 29, 1781 ; in Massachusetts His- 
torical Society Proceedings, October, 1890, p. 139. 

[ 206 ] 



The Ar?7iy in Motion 



and Cut up the roads ; and the snow Come about 
our shows [shoes] and then set in to rain, and 
with all which made it very teges [tedious], . . 
At twelve at night we Come into a wood and 
had order to bild ourselves shelters to brake 
of [off] the storm and make ourselves as Com- 
forteble as we could, but jest as we got a shelter 
bilt, and got a good fire and Dried some of our 
Cloths, and begun to have things a little Com- 
furteble, though but poor at the best, thare Come 
orders to march and leave all we had taken so 
much pains for." ^ 

There were brighter days and pleasant marches, 
not to be left altogether from the soldier's calen- 
dar. A pretty story has been preserved by an 
aged pensioner who was once in the Command- 
er-in-chief's life-guard; it will serve to brighten 
the picture of the army in motion. The men 
were marching slowly along one day with Wash- 
ington at their head. Where the road skirted a 

1 Elijah Fisher's Journal, p. 7. Thomas Blake's Journal 
(Kidder's First New Hampshire Regiment in the war of the 
Revolution, p. 37) pictures the greater suffering in time of re- 
treat when he refers thus to Burgoyne's movements after the 
second battle of Stillwater : '* They burnt most of the build- 
ings as they went, and cut away the bridges ; and whenever 
their wagons or tents or baggage broke down, they knocked the 
horses on the head and burnt the baggage." 

[ 207 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

pond a number of boys were engaged in throwing 
or "jerking " stones to make them skim across 
the face of the water. 

" Halt ! " came the command. Then Wash- 
ington said : " Now, boys, / will show you how 
to jerk a stone." He performed the feat success- 
fully, smiled quietly, and ordered his men to 
march forward. That is the story, to be credited 
or not as one wills.^ 

When the soldiers endured every species of 
privation in camp and on the march, it is not 
strange that they treated the property of people 
near them somewhat cavalierly. As the Conti- 
nentals came in sight, patriotic farmers drove their 
cattle into the hills and put their hens out of. 
reach. To have their fellow-countrymen quar- 
tered upon them was distressing from the desola- 
tion that marked their sojourn.^ Permission to 
take property was seldom granted to private sol- 
diers, and Washington made every effort to ap- 
pease the country-side. In an order against plun- 
dering, issued November 3, 1776, an exception 
was made in favor of straw, and, in time of great 

1 Alexander Milliner, in Hillard's Last Men of the Revolu- 
tion, p. 42. 

2 W. Thompson's Deposition ; in Publications of the Brookline 
Historical Publication Society, No. 12. 

[ 208 1 



The Army in Motion 



dampness, of grain in the sheaf, to keep the men 
from the ground at night.^ The custom of allow- 
ing scouting parties in time of great fatigue to 
take what they needed by plunder was greatly 
abused. 

The Chevalier de la Luzerne relates that in 
the winter of 1779-80 the soldiers grew des- 
perate under half-rations and took to marauding 
and pillage. This was stopped by Washington, 
but as famine set in, he ordered foraging expe- 
ditions — house-to-house visitations — for clothing, 
blankets, shoes, and every kind of food that could 
be spared by non-combatants. Under these trials 
of war the soldiery and the inhabitants seemed to 
the French writer very submissive.^ Needless 
cruelty the general abhorred,^ and he strove con- 
stantly to suppress the baser element, which was 
as terrible a scourge as the enemy."* 

Petty plunder was looked upon by the soldiers 
as " ragging " is to-day by college boys, a form of 
stealing that should be known by a more gentle 
name. A soldier, for example, threw a stone at 
some geese in a pond, killed one, and stowed it 

'Washington's Orderly Book, November 3, 1776. 
2 J. Durand's New Materials, p. 217. 
■^Washington's Orderly Book, July 7, 1776. 
* Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 4, p. 425, 

[ 209 ] 



The Private Soldier Under WashingtoJi 

away carefully in the roomy confines of his drum. 
When the irate farmer overtook the company the 
drum-head had been replaced and his search for 
the goose was unsuccessful. On another occasion 
the branches of a Quaker's orchard furnished some 
thirty or forty fowls, which were sent on ahead 
before daybreak, and later in the morning were 
cooked with onions, potatoes, and carrots,^ When 
cattle grazed on the hill-side above the camp, and 
the kettle was empty, " a condition and not a 
theory " confronted the cook ; in such a case 
a colonel was known not to disdain a quarter 
of beef left quietly at night beneath the flap of 
his tent. Or if a soldier (when meat was scarce) 
wished to visit a friend whom he had not seen 
for many years, and he was excused from roll-call 
by the captain, he might by chance find his 
"friend" in the act of cutting up a steer; it 
would be such a pleasure to return with meat for 
the company.'^ 

Days of privation justified theft in the eyes of 
many of the rank and file. Upon one occasion, 
in 1779, the troops marched by the body of a 
soldier, hung for inexcusable treatment of the 

^ E. Fox's Revolutionary Adventures (1838), pp. 49, 51. 
2 John Shreve's Personal Narrative; in Magazine of American 
History, September, 1879, p. 575. 

[ 210 ] 



The Arf7iy in Motion 



people. A comrade slapped the dead man on the 
thigh and said ; " Well, Jack, you are the best 
off of any of us — it won't come to your turn to be 
hanged again this ten years."^ 

In the north sympathizers with the King suf- 
fered less at the hands of passing soldiers than in 
the south ; and yet it was not uncommon for a 
plain-spoken Tory — a " ministerial tool " — to get 
a coat of tar and feathers, especially during the 
months when companies from the central colonies 
were on their way to join the army about Boston.^ 
The British regulars in Boston as early as 
March, 1775, had inflicted like punishment on a 
country fellow who (as was said) had been making 
preparation for rebellion by buying a gun from a 
red-coat.^ 

Tories were not always subjected to tar and 
feathers; in May, 1776, at a drinking " frolic," 
as it was called, a Tory forgot his caution 
and drank to the King's success; he was imme- 
diately dragged off to the guard, who knocked 

^ E. Hitchcock's Diary ; in Rhode Island Historical Society 
Publications, January, 1900, p. 223. 

2 Aaron Wright's Revolutionary Journal ; in Historical Mag- 
azine, July, 1862, p. 209 ; also William Hendrick's Journal ; 
in Pennsylvania Archives, 2d series, vol. 15, p. 28. 

^John Rowe's Diary ; in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Proceedings, March, 1895, p. 90. 

[ 211 ] 



The Private Soldier Ufider WasJmigtoii 

the end out of a hogshead and forced him to j 
"dance Yankee Dudle in it untiil next day."* ' 

In the south there was no neutral ground pos- 
sible for the country people. When the King's 
troops were in possession of the land, the Tories 
drove the rebel sympathizers into the mountains, 
killing husbands on their doorsteps and shooting 
children before their helpless mothers. When 
Lincoln or Gates or Greene came down from the 
north the tide of blood swept back upon the 
Tories. 

Many families in Georgia and elsewhere on 
this account lived in the mountains and sub- 
sisted by hunting.^ Efforts were made, however, 
to protect the royalists, and General Greene in 
his orders prohibited the soldiery from insulting 
any of the inhabitants "with the odious epithets 
of ' Tory ' or any other indecent language, it being 
ungenerous, unmanly and unsoldierlike.""'' In 
truth, the poor Tories found little comfort from 
either army ; a New York fugitive declared that 
the British spoke of the enemy as rebels, but the 
Tories they called "damned traitors and scoun- 

iD. McCurtin's Journal ; in T. Balch's Papers (1857), 
p. 40. 

2 Luzerne, in J. Durand's New Materials, p. 252. 

3 Colonel Hutchinson's Orderly Book, p. 7. 

[ -'1-^ ] 



T^he Army in Motion 



drels." In many towns they were forced to drill 
with their neighbors, and when drafted, were ex- 
pected to pay well for substitutes ; ^ in Massachu- 
setts the selectmen or overseers of the poor were 
empowered to bind out their children with those 
of the town paupers.^ 

The Tory while an exile in England suffered in 
spirit if he escaped physical pain; he heard his 
native land referred to in pompous terms as our 
plantations, and, as Franklin so delightfully drew 
the picture, he saw every Englishman "jostle him- 
self into the throne with the King" that he might 
talk of our subjects in the colonies? His friends in 
the rebel army were said to possess " every bad 
quality the depraved heart can be cursed with." 
Before he could analyze his thoughts he found 
himself rejoicing that news of a rebel victory di- 
minished the conceit of the insufferable " Island- 
ers " about him ; and it may be said that the Tory 
in a foreign land never entirely forgot that his 
friends and his kinsmen were fighting for the soil 
that he loved. Curwen has shown us these feel- 
ings in the story of his own exile,^ and Governor 

1 American Archives V., vol. i, col. 356. 
"^ Ibid., vol. I, col. 286. 
8 Franklin's Works (Bigelow), vol. 4, p. 3. 
* American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 1269. 

[ 213 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Hutchinson wished to return to lie at last in the 
soil of his native land.^ 

The practice of plundering Tories was not so 
much to be regretted as that of robbing the friends 
of Congress under the specious pretence that they 
were secretly loyal to the crown. This habit an- 
noyed Washington frequently, and he complained 
in January, 1777, to the governor of New Jersey, 
that the militia officers had been known to lead 
their men in these infamous expeditions.^ But 
robbery was a misfortune less serious than the 
treatment received by real Tories. The Council 
of Bennington in January, 1778, gave out the 
following order : 

" Let the overseer of the tories detach ten of them, 
with proper officers to take the charge, and march them 
in two distinct files from this place through the Green 
Mountains, for breaking a path through the snow. Let 
each man be provided with three days' provisions; let 
them march and tread the snow in said road of suitable 
width for a sleigh and span of horses ; order them to 
return, marching in the same manner, with all conven- 
ient speed. Let them march at 6 o'clock tomorrow 
morning." ^ 

^ T. Hutchinson's Diary and Letters (London, 1886), vol. 2, 
PP- 257, 335- 

2 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 5, p. 201 ; also his 
Revolutionary Orders (Whiting), p. 70. 

^ Note in Hadden's Journal, p. i 28. 

[ 214 ] 



The Army in Motion 



After the battle of Bennington the Tories were 
the sport of the soldiery; they were tied together 
in pairs, and attached by the traces to horses 
which were in some cases driven by negroes.^ 
The same spirit is evident in the remark of a 
soldier, made after the battle : " One Tory, with 
his left eye shot out, was led by me, mounted on 
a horse who had also lost his left eye. It seems to 
me cruel now — it did not then."^ If the thought 
and action of the time appear unworthy of men 
fighting for liberty, it is well to stand for a mo- 
ment as they did, with the contemptuous red-coat 
and his prison-ship toward the rising sun, and 
the treacherous redskin with his scalping-knife 
toward the western sun : that was no time for 
over-refinement. 

The British army, while marching through an 
enemy's country, found the Indian allies un- 
manageable; they demanded permission to pil- 
lage and torture as their reward for service. Per- 
haps with this in mind General Fraser told his 
prisoners that if they attempted to escape they 
would receive no quarter, but would be at the 
mercy of Indians, to be hunted down and scalped. 
Probably Fraser hardly expected to be forced to 

• Memoir of General John Stark, by C. Stark, p. 63. 
2J. D. Butler's Bennington address, p. 29. 

[ 215 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

allow so barbarous a punishment, but Burgoyne 
himself found the greatest difficulty in holding 
the savage allies to humane methods of warfare 
and regard for prisoners. Thacher has described 
the art of scalping. " With a knife," he writes, 
"■ they make a circular cut from the forehead, 
quite round, just above the ears ; then taking 
hold of the skin with their teeth, they tear off the 
whole hairy scalp in an instant, with wonderful 
dexterity." ^ This operation, very serious and 
painful, was not necessarily fatal, and a number 
of soldiers survived the scalping-knife as they 
did battles and lived into the next century. 
After the fight at Freeman's Farm the Indians 
are said to have spent the next morning in scalp- 
ing the dead and wounded ; a German officer 
makes the statement, and when taken with other 
evidence it does not seem improbable. Scalps 
were worth about eight dollars each, the price 
varying somewhat, according to agreement.^ 
General Carleton has been accused of paying for 
scalps, and American prisoners of more or less 
veracity, as well as Indians, testified to this as a 
fact.^ While it can scarcely be credited as con- 

' James Thacher's Military Journal, p. 137. 
'^J. Priest's Stories of the Revolution, p. 19. 
^J. Melvin's Journal, p. 23 ; also American Archives V., 
vol. 2, col. 268. 

[ 216 ] 



The Ar?ny in Motiofi 



sistent with Carleton's known character or as 
probable treatment of white people by their own 
race, one should not forget that the colonists 
had for a century and more set a dangerous 
example. 

A bounty on scalps of hostile Indians was the 
prize toward which a frontier " centinel " looked 
to augment his income. As an instance among 
many the vote of the New Hampshire House of 
Representatives May 7, 1746, may be given. 
The tariff was fixed at seventy pounds for the 
scalp of each male Indian over twelve who was 
at war with the province, and of thirty-seven 
pounds and ten shillings for scalps of women 
and of children under twelve years of age} Had 
the Indians joined the American army they would 
have scalped the British regulars who took their 
chances of death in any form ; but they threw 
in their lot with the royal cause, and so fell 
upon old men, helpless women and children 
more often than they did upon the Continentals. 
These were the unfortunate conditions of the 
struggle. 

There is little to relieve these pictures of bar- 
barity, and yet the following sprightly narrative 

^ New Hampshire Provincial Papers, vol. 5, p. 410. 
[ 217 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

by Ethan Allen is not without its humorous as- 
pect. He says : 

" The officer I capitulated with, then directed me and 
my party to advance towards him, which was done ; I 
handed him my sword, and in half a minute after, a 
savage, part of whose head was shaved, being almost 
naked and painted, with feathers intermixed with the hair 
of the other side of his head, came running to me with 
an incredible swiftness ; . . . malice, death, mur- 
der, and the wrath of devils and damned spirits are the 
emblems of his countenance ; and in less than twelve 
feet of me presented his firelock; at the instant of his 
present, I twitched the officer, to whom I gave my 
sword, between me and the savage ; but he flew round 
with great fury, trying to single me out to shoot me 
without killing the officer ; but by this time I was nearly 
as nimble as he, keeping the officer in such a position 
that his danger was my defence ; but in less than half a 
minute I was attacked by just such another imp of hell : 
Then I made the officer fly around with incredible 
velocity for a few seconds of time, when I perceived a 
Canadian who had lost one eye, as appeared afterwards, 
taking my part against the savages, and in an instant an 
Irishman came to my assistance with a fixed bayonet, 
and drove away the fiends, swearing by Jesus he would 
kill them." 1 

1 Ethan Allen's Narrative (Philadelphia, 1779), p. ii. 



[ 218 ] 



X 

The Private Himself 

THE Revolutionary rank and file, when 
their uniforms were fresh, were a pict- 
ure for the eye, with their cocked hats 
decked with sprigs of green, their hair white 
with flour, their fringed hunting shirts, and their 
leather or brown duck breeches. Many were 
boys; some at the opening of the war were under 
sixteen, with the virtues and vices of youth. 
They were eager for adventure, and every strange 
sight and custom made its impress upon them. 
In the Quebec expedition the way-side crosses 
and the chapel interiors, rich in color, interested 
the soldiers ; in the march against the Six Na- 
tions, Indian superstitions and habits of life were 
described in almost every diary, and in the south- 
ern colonies the peculiarity of slavery attracted 
the attention of the men from the north. Through 
travel and contact with the world there was an 
opportunity for the earnest soldier of good prin- 
ciples to widen his horizon and broaden his 
[ 219 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

sympathies: the Yankee, the Dutchman, and 
the Southerner came to know more of one 
another. 

Some of those who could write kept diaries. 
These journals have many references to the 
weird and the unusual, and they show a rough 
humor. In this respect they reflect the taste of 
the time. Privates, even those who rose to the 
commissioned ranks, spelled many words by 
sound. When this spelling indicates peculiari- 
ties in pronunciation it gives some impression of 
the language of the camp-fire. David How, of 
Methuen, was a private of the Massachusetts line, 
with all the sharpness and oddities that charac- 
terize a New England farmer. In his diary there 
is a consistency of error which amounts to a dia- 
lect. He always wrote whept for whipped, and 
the same tendency is evident in the use of splet 
meaning split, 'iteant for stint, and a pecking np for 
picking up. A New Englander, therefore, seems 
to have pronounced short / as though it had the 
sound of e in get; he reversed the sounds in 
words which properly have short ^, saying ridg- 
ment for regiment, git for get, ivint instead of 
went, /// for let, etc. Private John White, also a 
New Englander, used a for e and i so persistently 
that the nasal twang is very evident, as in his use 
[ 220 ] 



The Private Himself 



of sarten for certain, prants for prints, lave for 
leave, sands for sends, and u:all for well.^ 

Privates How and Fisher treated r much as it 
is treated to-day in New England. They wrote 
Salletoga for Saratoga, Dodgster for Dorchester, 
soyloin for sirloin, yestoday for yesterday, and afte 
instead of after; but where no r occurs or where 
it is not emphasized they made it prominent, by 
writing for tcag in place of fatigue, cateridges for 
cartridges (always), arams for arms, warier for 
water, and carstle for castle. Other pronuncia- 
tions, as valihle for valuable, bargon for bargain, 
jine for join, and j?>j/ for just are not uncommon 
to-day. " Privateer " was a stumbling-block that 
had to be overcome in those exciting days, and 
How bravely wrote " privitesters," and " privite- 
teres " to convey his meaning. Phrases now un- 
used appear in diaries, as "'lit of," meaning met, 
" for to go to Boston," and " sase money " (an 
allowance for vegetables). The impression 
which proper names made upon the mind of a 
private soldier may be inferred from his use of 
Hushing (Hessians), DuUerway (Delaware), 
Vinkearne (Lincoln) and Markis Delefiat or 
Delefiatee. It should not be forgotten, how- 
ever, that on the whole the English language as 

^ Parmenter's Pelham, Massachusetts, p. 129. 
[ 221 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washingtofi 

spoken by the more educated colonists was purer 
than the speech of Englishmen whose lives were 
confined to such counties as Devon and York- 
shire.-^ 

The soldiers had their own designations for 
their enemies and friends ; the British were com- 
monly called " lobsters," ^ and new recruits were, 
it is said, spoken of as " the long-faced people." ^ 

Keeping a diary in all kinds of weather, with 
no table to write upon, poor quills and thick ink, 
and hands numb with cold, or stiff from guard 
duty, was an achievement which must command 
respect. As the scratchy pen was driven slowly 
across the fibrous paper in the flickering glare of 
the camp-fire, the writer, with brows puckered to 

'See Franklin's Works (Bigelow), vol. 4, p. 246. 

2 The term " lobsters " is said to have been applied in 1643 
to cuirassiers on account of their bright armor (Notes and 
Queries, September 24, 1859, P- 252) ; later it w^as per- 
haps suggested by the color of the British coats (^ibid., April 8, 
1876, p. 286; October 6, 1900, p. 266; December 29, 1900, 
p. 516). 

3 Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, pp. 57,65, 80, 
etc. This interpretation is given by the editor of the diary. 
Mr. Albert Matthews has called my attention to the following 
phrase in Moore's Diary, vol. i, p. 350: *' We intend to 
push on after the long-faces in a few days." This seems to 
refer to the American troops, and possibly the words had a still 
more specific meaning. 

[ 222 ] 



T^he Private Himself 



concentrate his thoughts and keep from his mind 
a babel of voices, put down much that was in- 
structive and amusing. To one the Sunday text 
was worthy of note, to another the current price 
of shoes or the details of an execution for crime. 
Mr. How was careful to record deaths, and after 
each name a heavy black line completed the 
entry as a proper mark of mourning. Sam 
Haws, of Wrentham, was particular about the 
appearance of his pages, and when he made a 
blot in his Journal he added : " o you nasty 
Sloven how your Book Looks." ^ 

Elijah Fisher, referred to above, studied dili- 
gently when opportunity offered. His diary, in 
February, 1780, states: "I stayes [with Mr. 
Wallis] and follows my Riting and sifering the 
same as I had Dun the Evnings before, for Every 
Evning from six of the Clock till Nine I used to 
follow my study." Under date of October 17th 
this quaint note appears in his book : " I agreed 
with Sarjt Sm. Whippels to stay one month with 
him after my time was out and so do his Duty 
and he was to lam me to Rite and sifer and 
what other laming would be eassy." It is pleas- 
ant to know that this training proved of value 
the next year, when the absence of the captain, 

1 Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, p. 82. 
[ 223 ] 



The Private Soldier Tinder Washington 

one lieutenant, and both sergeants for a time 
threw much of the care of the company upon his 
shoulders.-' 

The retreat from Bunker Hill was mortifying 
to the defeated participants, officers as well as 
men, who found fault with the insufficient pow- 
der and reenforcements. The Americans were 
on a peninsula the approach to which could be 
commanded by a British man-of-war. They did 
not realize that longer occupation might have in- 
duced the British to cut off their line of escape 
and starve them into surrender. A quick defeat 
for which the enemy paid heavily both in lives 
and in prestige did more for America than pos- 
session of the defences on the hill for another 
night could possibly have done. Until a soldier 
acquired sufficient education to fit him for an 
officer's commission he was not thrown with 
men who heard the current news at head-quar- 
ters ; his horizon, therefore, was limited, and a 
battle, far reaching in its influence upon events, 
meant no more to him than a chance en- 
counter. 

A private at the battle of Long Island, igno- 
rant of the critical state of the patriot cause on 

1 E. Fisher's Journal, p. 17. 
[ 224 ] 



The Private Himself 



that memorable occasion, states the facts very 
quietly : 

27. Our army on long Island Have ben Engaged in 
battle With the Enimy and Kill^ And taken a good 
many on Both sides. 

29. This night our army on long Island All left it & 
Brought all their Bagage to N. York.' 

The same soldier thus described the battle of 
Trenton : 

26. This morning at 4 a Clock We set off with our 
Field pieces Marchd 8 miles to Trenton Whare we 
ware Atacked by a Number of Hushing [Hessians] & 
we Toock 1000 of them besides killed Some Then we 
march"^ back And got to the River at Night And got 
over all the Hushing. 

28. This Day we have ben washing Our things.^ 

The writer declined to heed the general's en- 
treaty to remain in service for six weeks longer, 
drew his wages and " sase money," and marched 
for home, missing by two days the famous en- 
gagement at Princeton. The soldier's inability 
to comprehend the state of affairs at critical peri- 
ods may account often for a seeming lack of pa- 
triotism, as in the case just cited, but on the other 
hand his ignorance kept his heart light. Colonel 

1 David How's Diary, p. 26. '^ Ibid., p. 41. 

[ 225 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Cadwalader, less than a fortnight before the battle 
of Trenton, closed a letter to Robert Morris by 
saying that he had been led into a complaining 

tone " by the d d gloomy countenances seen 

wherever I go except among the soldiers," ^ 

When given a chance the privates did their 
share of thinking ; in the execution of large plans 
this was a disadvantage, since the machine-like 
corps could better be reckoned with than the body 
of individuals. In 1776 a skirmish took place 
between a party of straggling soldiers and some 
Hessians who held a rocky eminence between the 
termination of Mount Washington and King's 
Bridge. Two Pennsylvania privates advanced 
up the hill and opened fire ; they were soon joined 
by a i^^ recruits, who soon silenced the Hessian 
guns. Seeing this, a detachment of about fifty 
of the enemy set off to aid their outposts. By 
this time the little group of volunteers numbered 
twenty or more ; without officers to conuslt, they 
talked over the matter among themselves, and 
decided to form into three divisions, one to attack 
the rocky defences of the enemy and two to circle 
the position in order to fall upon it in the rear 
or to meet the advancing reenforcements. The 
manoeuvre was entirely successful, for the outpost 

1 American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 1231. 
[ 226 ] 



The Private Himself 



retreated to avoid falling into the trap, and the 
Americans took and held the rocky stronghold 
until darkness came on/ 

In any large number of men some there are 
who will study and think for themselves, ready or 
preparing to influence and lead ; but too many 
are indolent and heedless. When Mrs. Esther 
Reed in 1780 offered to Washington the 300,634 
paper dollars which the ladies of Philadelphia had 
raised for the army, she proposed to turn this sum 
into specie and present to each soldier two " hard " 
dollars. The Commander replied that he preferred 
a shirt for each man, as money would induce 
drinking and discord.' The payment of wages 
often led to disorder, as intimated by a private 
at Cambridge in his remark : " Peace with our 
enemy, but disturbance enough with rum, for our 
men got money yesterday." ^ 

Rum was an article of daily consumption, and 
its evil effects must have balanced whatever of 
good it did. It was drunk " to the health and 
success of the ladies,'"^ to celebrate victories, to 

^ American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 602. 

2 Life of Joseph Reed, vol. 2 (1847), pp. 262-266. 

3 Aaron Wright's Revolutionary Journal ; in Historical Mag- 
azine, July, 1862, p. 210. 

^ Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, p. 57. 
[ 227 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

encourage enlisting, by fatigue parties to counter- 
act the strain of hard work in bad weather, and 
even more hberally when there was no object in 
view ; when taken early in the morning, unmixed 
with water, it impaired the health of the men ; ^ 
and in long marches the hard drinker was most 
apt to suffer.^ At the siege of Boston Sam Haws, 
a private, experienced the not unusual effects of 
merry-making. "We turned out," he says, "and 
went to the Larm post and it was very cold, and 
we came home and there was a high go of Drink- 
ing Brandy, and several of the company were 
taken not well prety soon after." ^ David How 
tells the story of two men at Cambridge who fell 
to bantering one another as to who could drink 
the most. This led to excessive drinking, from 
which one of the men died in an hour or two.** 
Upon another occasion John Coleman " drinkt 3 
pints of cyder at one draught," ^ a feat that excited 
comment. Jamec McDaniel was so eager for rum 
that he forged an order to obtain it." To check 

^ Colonel Hutchinson's Orderly Book, p. 15. 

2 Dr. E. Elmer's Journal; in New Jersey Historical Society 
Proceedings, vol. 2 (1846), p. 48. 

3 Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, p. 78. 
^D. How's Diary, p. 5. 

5 Military Journals, p. 70, 

^ Colonel William Henshaw's Orderly Book, p. 59. 
[ 228 ] 



'The Private Himself 



excessive drinking, spirits were allowed to be sold 
in one place only within the limits of each brigade, 
and sutlers were sometimes enjoined from selling 
after the retreat had been sounded at sunset.^ 

Hard cider was much used, as it still is in coun- 
try towns, in place of distilled liquors. The story 
is told of a private, then not over sixteen years of 
age, who was taunted in camp with being home- 
sick until he lost his patience and attempted to 
thrash his persecutor. At first unsuccessful, he 
called for quarter, but, receiving none, he fought 
desperately and worsted his antagonist. The af- 
fair became the talk of the company and reached 
the ears of the captain. The two men— boys 
they really were — soon came up before their com- 
rades to receive whatever public punishment the 
captain thought meet. Amid silence he looked 
sternly at the culprits, angular and tall, poorly 
clad by their province, and as poorly fed, youthful 
and perhaps a little frightened ; he allowed his 
eyes to rest on their bronzed faces, for he knew 
them well ; then in the hush he said, " You are 
ordered for punishment to drink together a mug 
of cider." After the first instant's astonishment 
the laughter that followed was proof that the cap- 
tain knew the failings of his men. 

1 Jonathan Burton's Orderly Book, p. 13. 
[ 229 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

Sensuality is not often mentioned in the diaries 
or letters of the soldiers, although references are 
not wanting. Stealing, however, was not un- 
common. Lieutenant Burton lost his "cotten" 
shirt by a " bold Theefe " ; ^ and a soldier for 
stealing a cheese was whipped thirty lashes.^ 
Samuel Haws has related how in the camp near 
Boston, in October, 1775, a "Rifle man [was] 
whipt 39 stripes for Stealing and afterwards he 
was Drummed out of the camps; if the infernal 
regions had ben opened and cain and Judas and 
Sam Haws had been present their could not have 
ben a biger uproar." ^ 

Swearing was a habit which Washington tried 
in vain to check ; the coarse language of many of 
the men shocked him as it did others. A clergy- 
man, referring to the New York troops who were 
with Arnold in 1776, remarked that " it would be 
a dreadful hell to live with such creatures for- 
ever." ^ But to suppose that there was no strong 
religious leaven in the army would be a mistake. 
Corporal Farnsworth, of Groton, found a young 
soldier with whom he could converse freely on 

'Jonathan Burton's Orderly Book, p. 36. 

2 David How's Diary, p. 12. 

3 Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, p. 76. 
^Rev. A. R. Robbins's Journal, p. 10. 

1 230 ] 



The Private Himself 



spiritual things, and said, with a grateful heart : 
" I find God has a Remnant in this Depraved and 
Degenerated and gloomy time."* 

While every army has its men of low princi- 
ples, they weigh little in the winning or losing of 
campaigns if the great majority are efficient and 
brave. 

The Americans as a pioneer people were ac- 
customed to danger, and they were familiar with 
fire-arms.^ Men might be relegated to the " awk- 
ward squad " to learn manners,^ but the polish 
would cover a stout heart. Sir William Johnson 
wrote that the British ministry must not look 
upon the Americans as cowards who would not 
fight ;^ while Anburey commented on their " cour- 
age and obstinacy ," which had already astonished 
the officers under Burgoyne.^ A Continental sol- 
dier who had been at Bunker Hill remarked that 
he would to God that his people had as good 
courage in the spiritual warfare as they had in the 

'Amos Farnsworth's Diary; in Massachusetts Historical 
Society Proceedings, January, 1898, p. 85. 

2 J. Durand's New Materials, p. 25 ; American Archives V., 
vol. 3, col. 1395. 

^ A. Lewis's Orderly Book, p. 6 ; also Military Journals of 
Two Private Soldiers, p. 54. 

** Johnson's Orderly Book, p. 49, note. 

^T. Anburey' s Travels, vol. i, p. 418. 

[ 231 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

temporal.^ Not to multiply statements, the testi- 
mony of a Tory of New York may be given as 
final evidence of reasonable courage shown by the 
American troops ; commenting on the fighting in 
New Jersey in June, 1780, he remarked of the 
rebels : " They were mostly militia, and stood and 
fought better than ever before."^ 

No doubt the militia accomplished all that could 
be fairly expected of men who did not make 
war a profession. They were subject to panic, but 
fought well when they knew the land and the 
purpose of the commander, and were also sure 
that no trap awaited them. A saying in the army 
that Gates loved the militia because they would 
never bring him under fire is a commentary on 
the private as well as the general.^ But men who 
were familiar with militia knew what to expect. 
Dr. John Witherspoon, of New Jersey, speaking 
in Congress in 1776, reminded the members that 
at the battle of Preston militia ran like sheep ; at 
Falkirk, in 1746, the speaker himself saw troops 

lA. Farnsworth's Diary ; in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Proceedings, January, 1898, p. 87. 

2E. G. Schaukirk's Diary; in Pennsylvania Magazine of 
History and Biography, vol. 10, p. 431. 

3E. Hitchcock's Diary ; in Rhode Island Historical Society 
Publications, January, 1900, p. 224. 
[ 232 ] 



The Private Hi?nself 



" behave fifty times worse " than the Americans 
had behaved at Long Island. 

Washington said of his own troops in 1776: 
" Place them behind a parapet, a breast- work, 
stone wall, or any thing that will afford them 
shelter, and from their knowledge of a firelock, 
they will give a good account of their enemy; 
but I am as well convinced, as if I had seen 
it, that they will not march boldly up to a 
work nor stand exposed in a plain." ^ A few 
months later he wrote : " Being fully persuaded 
that it would be presumption to draw out our 
young troops into open ground against their su- 
periors both in number and discipline, I have 
never spared the spade and pickaxe. I confess I 
have not found that readiness to defend even 
strong posts at all hazards, which is necessary to 
derive the greatest benefits from them." ^ Wash- 
ington wrote these words after the battle of Long 
Island. 

Five days later Lord Percy wrote : " The 
moment the Rebels fired, our men rushed on 
them with their Bayonets & never gave them 
time to load again. ... I think I may vent- 
ure to assert, that they will never again stand be- 

1 Washington's Writings (Ford), vol. 3, p. 398. 
^ Ibid., vol. 4, p. 392. 

[ ^Zi 1 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

fore us in the Field." ^ Whether this wis due to 
cowardice or inexperience he did not assert, but 
Curwen, the loyaHst, held to the view that the in- 
ability of untrained troops to face regulars in the 
open was no proof of lack of bravery.^ 

It has been said that Washington's strength as 
a commander lay in his readiness to learn a lesson 
from experience. He discovered very soon the 
value of earthworks, and persisted in their use 
without regard to expressions of disapproval 
from European officers. In Braddock's campaign 
his advice to seek protection behind trees had 
met with disfavor, and now Lee spoke slightingly 
of hastily made defences, and others considered 
them destructive of manliness and courage. John 
Adams represented a certain public impatience 
when he wrote : " The practice we have hitherto 
been in, of ditching round about our enemies, will 
not always do. We must learn to use other 
weapons than the pick and the spade." ^ 
. The motives which controlled enlistment are 

^ Percy's Letters ; in Boston Public Library Bulletin, January, 
1892, pp. 325, 326. 

^American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 1306. Franklin in 1769 
wrote a vigorous defence of the provincial militia in answer to 
a taunting article in No. 310 of the London Chronicle. See 
his Works, edited by Bigelow, vol. 4, p. 247. 

^American Archives V., vol. i, col. 103. 

[ 234 ] 



The Private Himself 



not easily defined ; patriotism, adventure, money, 
glory, all have their weight in determining human 
action. A Frenchman who spent a year in Amer- 
ica reported that all the recruits were mercena- 
ries, led by a few patriotic officers.^ So general 
a charge needs no serious answer, but it may be 
stated as self-evident that the poorer the soldier 
of any rank, the more dependent he will be upon 
the compensation which he receives for his ser- 
vices. The rank and file were no doubt more in 
need of money than their officers ; when it did 
not come, even in the form of paper, they muti- 
nied ; their officers, fortunately, could resign. The 
charge could not have been true in 1775; later, 
as it became evident that farmers with children 
to be supported were unable to remain in the 
army, their places were taken by young men who 
made war a profession and expected its rewards. 

The heads of families soon found that service 
in the army meant starvation for those at home. 
Through the demands of producers, following the 
example set by avaricious retailers, the price of 
necessities rose beyond the reach of the soldiers' 
wives. Said a student of the times : " At this 
rate what will become of thousands of people 
who depended on their absent friends in the army 

'J. Durand's New Materials, p. 25. 
[ 235 ] 



'The Private Soldier Under Washington 

for a subsistence % " Those who, having no 
home ties, could go into the army for a small 
bounty and moderate wages, were carried alon<* 
by the tide ; what the married men required, the 
young men, seeing their opportunity, were led to 
demand.-^ 

Claude Blanchard visited the army under 
Washington at Peekskill in 1781 ; to his eye 
the soldiers marched well but handled their arms 
badly. "There were," he relates, "some fine- 
looking men ; also many who were small and 
thin, and even some children twelve or thirteen 
years old. They have no uniforms, and in gen- 
eral are badly clad."^ It is not difficult to 
understand the physical condition of men who 
had clung to army life through its few bright 
days, and its many days of privation, when one 
recalls the winter at Valley Forge. It was there 
that James Thacher, while walking with Wash- 
ington among the soldiers' huts, heard voices 
echoing through the open crevices between the 
logs, " no pay, no clothes, no provisions, no rum" ; 
and the few who flitted from hut to hut were 
covered only with dirty and ragged blankets.^ 

1 American Archives V., vol. 3, col. 11 76 (year 1776). 
~Blanchard's Journal, p. 115. 
2 J. Thacher's Military Journal, p. 154. 
[ 236 ] 



I 



-.-^/ 4x^ '^ r/i<f^r, J^-^ ^o^- <^ .-.^-.^/C^/ -^ ,^. :^^^ .^ 

/ / -y / 4/ yy ■ .P •/ 



Celebration of New Year's Day. 

Page from Washington's order book, Jan. i, 1778. 



'The Private Himself 



The men were supposed to make as good an 
appearance on guard and at parade as was possi- 
ble. They were ordered to have their beards 
close shaved, their clothes and shoes cleaned,^ and 
their faces and hands washed.^ When an event 
of importance occurred the men powdered their 
hair. South Carolina troops, in 1776, were in- 
structed to have their hair "properly trimmed up 
and tyed for cap wearing, but without side locks." 
Pay for the barbers was obtained by stoppages 
from the wages of the men.'^ In our day powder 
and long hair seem more suited to a ball-room 
than a battle-decimated army. The convenience 
and cleanliness of short hair did not, apparently, 
receive the serious attention of commanding 
officers. 

Sullivan's army, 3,000 strong, returned from 
the Indian country in tatters, " with the re- 
maining parts of their garments hanging in 
streamers behind them," yet they had sprigs of 
evergreen in their caps, and their heads were as 
white as a wagon-load of flour could make them. 
The incongruity of the spectacle convulsed the 

^ A. Lewis's Orderly Book, pp, 8, 27. 
''Jonathan Burton's Orderly Book, p. 17. 
2 Captain Barnard Elliott's Diary ; in Charleston Year Book, 
1889, p. 188. 

[ 2Z7 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

officers and moved the chaplain " to forget his 
gravity." ^ 

The language of the private was not that of a 
mercenary. Wright of the New Jersey line fre- 
quently referred in his journal to the Philistines, 
meaning the enemy, and commented upon the 
" diabolical rage of the parliamentary tools on 
Bunker Hill" (then held by the British).^ An- 
other private, a Massachusetts man, referred to 
"the wicked enemy," ^ and a less restrained writer 
to "• the butchers belonging to the tyrant of Great 
Britain."'* Private McCurtin, of Maryland, re- 
ferred to General Gage during the siege of Boston 
as "that Crocodile and second Pharoe, namely 
l^ Tom : Gage." ^ Corporal Farnsworth, a very re- 
ligious man, spoke of the burning of Charlestown 
by " that infernal Villain Thomas Gage," and to 
the possession of Boston by "our Unnatteral 
enemyes." ^ 

^ Nathan Davis's History ; in Historical Magazine, April, 
1868, p. 205. 

^ Ibid., p. 209. 

2 Military Journals of Two Private Soldiers, p. 66. 

^ D. McCurtin's Journal ; in T. Balch's Papers (l857)> 
?• 33- 

^ Ibid.y p. 17. 

*A. Farnsworth's Diary ; in Massachusetts Historical Society 
Proceedings, January, 1898, pp. 84, 88. 

[ 238 ] 



T^he Private Himself 



Plain speaking and independence of thought 
were characteristic of a people less bound by class 
distinctions and therefore less accustomed to obey 
than those of equal educational and property quali- 
fications in the Old World. These traits made 
their impress upon events. Said Governor Trum- 
bull : " The pulse of a New England man beats 
high for liberty. His engagement in the service 
he thinks purely voluntary — therefore in his esti- 
mation, when the time of his enlistment was out, 
he thinks himself not holden, without further en- 
gagement." ^ This feeling accounts for a serious 
reduction of the army besieging Boston in the 
winter of 1775-76; as company after company 
broke camp and marched away, the troops hissed, 
showing unmistakably that many disapproved of 
the action.*^ Personal loyalty sometimes found its 
expression in hand-to-hand encounters between 
the ardent patriots in the army and those whose 
zeal was open to question. A New Englander, it 
is said, felt no hesitation, when meeting a half- 
hearted Nova Scotia volunteer (popularly called 
a Holy Ghoster), in knocking him down on 

1 Stuart's Trumbull (1859), P- ^24. 

'^ Captain Nathan Hale attributed the departure of volunteers 
to a scarcity of provisions. In any case the men took affairs 
into their own hands. Ibid., p. 223. 
[ 239 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

the spot without pretext or preliminary explana- 
tion. 

The following picture of the private soldier, 
singing as he suffered, is by a surgeon at Valley 
Forge ; he studied the details day by day, 
the humorous and pathetic, the light and the 
shade : 

" See the poor Soldier, when in health — with what 
chearfullness he meets his foes and encounters every 
hardship — if barefoot — he labours thro' the Mud & Cold 
with a Song in his mouth extolling War & Washing- 
ton^ — if his food be bad — he eats it notwithstanding 
with seeming content — blesses God for a good Stom- 
ach — and whisles it into digestion. But harkee Pa- 
tience — a moment — There comes a Soldier — His bare 
feet are seen thro' his worn Shoes — his legs nearly naked 
from the tatter'd remains of an only pair of stockings — 
his Breeches not sufficient to cover his Nakedness — his 
shirt hanging in Strings — his hair dishevell'd — his face 
meagre — his whole appearance pictures a person for- 
saken & discouraged. He comes, and crys with an air 
of wretchedness & dispair — I am Sick — my feet lame — 
my legs are sore — my body cover'd with this tormenting 
Itch — my cloaths are worn out — my Constitution is 
broken— my former Activity is exhausted by fatigue — • 
hunger & Cold — I fail fast I shall soon be no more ! 

^ Mitchel Sewall's ode, the only one mentioned, as far as I 
have noticed, in the diaries here cited as actually sung by the 
rank and file of the army. 

[ 240 ] 



The Private Himself 



and all the reward I shall get will be — ' Poor Will is 
dead."'i 

There was another side to the war picture. 
Enthusiasm and excitement enabled men, bred to 
a city life, to endure exposure in the dead of 
winter that under ordinary circumstances must 
have proved fatal. Dr. Benjamin Rush has called 
attention to the apparent effect of the victory at 
Trenton in 1776 upon some 1,500 Philadelphia 
militia. During a period of five weeks or more 
these men, unaccustomed to hardship, slept in 
barns and upon the bare ground, with a record of 
only two cases of sickness and one of death. The 
plain living and comparatively regular hours of 
camp life are said to have saved some men from 
consumption and other diseases ; while the change 
of environment from the too frequent irritation 
and pettiness of village life delivered nervous per- 
sons from their own misfortunes and freshened 
their minds.'^ 

Two questions arise in connection with the 
men of the Revolution, How many served against 
Great Britain"? and What became of the survivors 

' Dr. A. Waldo's Diary ; in Historical Magazine, May, 
I 861, p. 131. 

2 Dr. Benjamin Rush, in Massachusetts Magazine for 1791, 
pp. 284, 360. 

[ 241 ] 



V 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

after the war had closed *? General Knox, in a 
report to Congress, attempted to answer the first 
of these,^ but his tables are hopelessly confusing, 
since they are based upon the number of men 
to he enlisted rather than upon the number of those 
who engaged themselves, and upon records of the 
years of their service rather than upon the number 
of men performing this service.^ By the roughest 
kind of calculation the total number of men who 
served as Continentals or as militiamen during 
any part of the eight years of the war must have 
been far in excess of 232,000, the usual estimate, 
based upon Knox's tables. Many of these men 
died of wounds or disease, and many more re- 
turned to their homes broken in health and with- 
out suitable occupation. The names of officers 
and privates who received pensions have been re- 
corded by the Government from time to time; men- 
tion should be made, first, of a list, giving 1,730 
pensioners whose names were on the rolls June 1, 
1813;^ again, of another, giving about 16,000 

* Knox's Report ; in American State Papers, Military Af- 
fairs, vol. I, p. 14. 

2 Explained in Justin Winsor's paper; in Massachusetts His- 
torical Society Proceedings, January, 1886, p. 204. For an 
example of the misleading tables see Harper's Book of Facts 
(New York, 1895), under "Army," p. 47. 

3 Thirteenth Congress, First Session ; Executive reports, letter 

[ 242 ] 




Gray cartridge paper, with cartridges and ijall, found in the attic 
of the church at Shirley Centre, Mass., by J. E. L. Hazen ; also 
bullet mould and melting pot. 



The Private Himself 



names in 1820;^ of a third, three thick volumes" 
(a report from the Secretary of War in obedience 
to resolves of the Senate of June 5th and 30th, 
1834, and March 3, 1835) ; and of a fourth list, 
a thin volume which appeared in 1840. Portraits 
of several aged pensioners may be seen in E. B. 
Hillard's work on " The Last Men of the Revo- 
lution," and one of Ralph Farnham, called the 
last survivor of the battle of Bunker Hill, will 
be found in C. W, Clarence's biographical sketch 
of him. Samuel Downing, a private of the New 
Hampshire line, was the last surviving Revolu- 
tionary pensioner under the general acts which 
placed all State and national pensioners, and 
finally all men who had served nine months, on 
the rolls. He died February 18, 1869, at the 
age of one hundred and seven.^ The last sur- 

from Secretary of War. Reprinted in Minnesota Historical 
Society Collections. 

1 Sixteenth Congress, First Session, House Documents, vol. 4, 
No. 55. See also Twenty-first Congress, Second Session, 
House Documents, vol. 2, No. 31, for list of those rejected, 
with reasons; and vol. 3, No. 86, for an invalid pension 
roll. 

2 Twenty-third Congress, First Session, Senate Documents, 
vols. 12, 13, 14. 

3 Harper's Book of Facts (1895), pp. 621, 682. Down- 
ing' s kindly face, framed in snow-white hair, serves as a fron- 
tispiece for Mr. Hillard's book. 

[ 243 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

vivor placed on the rolls by special act of Con- 
gress was Daniel F. Bakeman, of Cattaraugus 
County, New York, who died April 5, 1869, at 
the age of one hundred and nine. As late as 
June 30, 1899, four widows of soldiers of the war 
appeared on the pension rolls.^ 

In the preceding pages officers have been 
quoted as authorities on the rank and file. It 
would hardly do to quote seriously the opinions 
which a private at the age of one hundred and 
two held in regard to his superiors, but a line 
from Downing's observations on each of the great 
names of the war may, nevertheless, not be out of 
place : 

Of Arnold: A bloody fellow he was. He didn't 
care for nothing; he'd ride right in. It was "Come 
on, boys ! " 'twasn't " Go, boys ! " . . . there 
wasn't any waste timber in him. He was a stern look- 
ing man but kind to his soldiers. They didn't treat 
him right . . . but he ought to have been true. 

Of Gates : Gates was an " old granny " looking fel- 
low. 

Of JVashington : Oh ! but you never got a smile out 
of him. He was a nice man. We loved him. They'd 
sell their lives for him. 

^ World Almanac, 1900, p. 165. 

■ [ 244 ] 



The Private Himself 



Alexander Milliner, another aged pensioner, 
said : 

Of Arnold : Arnold was a smart man; they didn't 
sarve him quite straight. 

Of Washington : He was a good man, a beautiful man. 
He was always pleasant ; never changed countenance, 
but wore the same in defeat and retreat as in victory. 

Pension legislation relating to the Revolution 
was summarized by the Commissioner in his re- 
port of October 19, 1857.^ T\\^ first general act 
(March 18, 1818) was for the benefit of officers 
and men in need of assistance who had served in 
the Continental army or navy to the close of the 
war or for nine consecutive months, and allowed 
to privates $8 a month ; the act of May 1 5, 
1828, gave to privates in the Continental line who 
had served to the close of the war the amount of 
their full pay, whether in need of help or not ; 
the act of June 7, 1832, gave to all persons who 
had done any military service in the Revolution- 
ary War for six months a fourth of full pay, with 
increase varying according to the term of service 
up to two years. These acts were followed by 
what were known as " the widows' acts," The 

1 Appended to Secretary of Interior's Report : Thirty -fifth 

Congress, First Session, Senate Documents, vol. 2. 

[ 245 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

total expenditure to the year 1 857 exceeded $60,- 
000,000, or less than one-half the yearly pension 
appropriation now made on account of later wars. 
To state the comparison in another way, the Civil 
War (the chief source of the pension roll) in 
forty years has cost in pensions forty times what 
the Revolutionary War cost in eighty years.^ This 
is a commentary on the growth of the country 
from 1783 to 1865 in population, territory, and 
wealth, and perhaps also on an increasing willing- 
ness to accept public aid. 

In the years immediately following the close of 
the war the veterans too often were obliged to 
depend wholly or in part upon friends or chil- 
dren for support ; they went from town to town, 
telling their stories at the village inn or by the 
fireside to the boys and girls of that time, who 
have passed them on to our own day. The 
hardest misfortunes came in the summer of 1 783. 
Elijah Fisher's experiences are recorded in his 
journal, and as he had served for several years as 
a private soldier they may be taken as a fair pict- 
ure of the trials of the less fortunate enlisted men. 
He left the " old Jarsey preasen ship " April 9, 
1783, and landed in New York City; that night 
he slept at the City Hall Tavern, where he was 

EWorld Almanac for 1900, p. 164. 
[ 246 ] 



The Private Hiffjself 



well treated and provided with a shirt. He con- 
tinues : 

"The loth. I Leaves Mr. Franceps and so goes 
about the City to se it and went into Nombers of there 
shopes and would say your servent gentlefolks, I wish 
you much Joy with the nuse of peace, I hope it will be 
a long and a lasting one, some of them would be Very 
well pleased with it and would wish me the same (and 
others would be on the other hand) and said that their 
surcomstances poor at preasent but now they hoped they 
would be better. I said what then do you think of us 
poor prisners that have neither Money nor frinds and 
have ben long absent from our homes, then some of 
of them would pity us and would give us something, 
some half a Dollar some a quarter, some less, some 
nothing but frowns." 

The next afternoon Fisher sailed for Boston ; 
he arrived in due time, and the story proceeds: 

" The 14th. I Leaves Mr. Brimers at the Planes. 
I gos through Brookline and in to old Cambridge, from 
there to the Tenhills and then to Charleston, and then 
Cross the farray in to Boston, but there was so meny 
that Come from the army and from see that had no 
homes that would work for little or nothing but there 
vitels that I Could not find any Employment, so stays in 
Boston till the seventeenth ; in the meenwhile one Day 
after I had ben Inquiring and had ben on bord severe! 
of there Vesels but could git into no bisnes neither by 
see nor Land, 

[ 247 ] 



The Private Soldier Under Washington 

" The 1 6th. I Com Down by the markett and sits 
Down all alone, allmost Descureged, and begun to think 
over how that I had ben in the army, what ill success 
I had met with there and all so how I was ronged by 
them I worked for at home, and lost all last winter, and 
now that I could not get into any besness and no home, 
which you may well think how I felt ; but then Come 
into my mind that there ware thousands in wors sircum- 
stances then I was, and having food and rament [I 
ought to] be Content, and that I had nothing to reflect 
on myself, and I [resolved] to do my endever and leave 
the avent to Provedance, and after that I felt as con- 
tented as need to be."^ 

With this quaint narrative of the troubles that 
fell to the lot of the Revolutionary veteran and 
the consolations that were his also, this record of 
the private soldier closes. He was a humble in- 
strument in a great cause ; he profited by an 
opportunity that does not come in every genera- 
tion. Whether France or Washington or the 
patriot army contributed most to bring about the 
peace of Paris in 1783 is of little moment. 
France and Washington long ago had their due ; 
it has been the purpose of these pages to give the 
private soldier under Washington whatever share 
in the victory was his by right of the danger, 
privation, and toil that he endured. 

1 Elijah Fisher's Journal, pp. 23, 24. Punctuation added. 
[ 248 ] 



INDEX 



INDEX 

Accidents with firearms, 112-113 

Air purified in hospitals, 178 

Alarm-list companies, 8 

Allen, Ethan, adventure with an Indian, 218 

Amusements, 168 

Army, origin of, 3 et seq.; taken over by Congress, 19. See also 

Continental army 
Army life, 241 
Arnold, Benedict, account of the Continental army in 1780, 67; as 

seen by privates, 244-245 
Artisans, 154 

"Assembly," in military music, 196 
Authority, fear of officers to exercise, 131 
Avarice of soldiers, 41 
Awkward squad, 34, 231 

Baking and bakers, 86-87 

Ball, allowance of, 116; wind from a ball, 1 5 1 

Barbarities, 199 

Barter in camp, 156 

Battles as seen by the private, 224-225 

Beggars disappear in war time, 37 

Bibles for soldiers, 159 

Blue, adopted for uniforms, 95 

Blue and buff, 91, 96 

Bombardiers, 51 

Bounties, in 1776, 44, 48-50 ; re-enlisting for, 53 ; after Trenton, 55 ; 

in 1778 and 1779, 59-61 
Bows and arrows advocated by Franklin, 1 12 
Brandy wine celebration, 168 
Bravery, 40 

Bunker Hill, the battle, as seen by the private, 224 ; last survivor, 243 
Burgoyne's surrender, anniversary of, 166 



Index 

Camp at Cambridge in 1775, 74; at Valley Forge, 76; at White- 
marsh, 77 

Camp diversions, 16^ et seq. 

Camp duties, 143 et seq. 

Cartridges, 121 

Clothing, 89 et seq. ; color, 93 ; in summer, 95 ; for Canada expedi- 
tion, 98; scarcity in 1777, 100; in France and West Indies, 102 

Coast guard, 20 

Colonies in 1775, 3; population, 5; in 1781, 69 

Commissariat, 184 

Committee of inquiry, account of, 42 

Committee of safety, powers of, 7 

Committees of correspondence formed, 16 

Concord, stores at, 10 

Congress, weakness of, in 1780, 66 

Continental army, Howe on, 14; Percy's opinion, 14; in July, 1775, 
19; old and new establishment, 27; in September, 1775, 43; 
increased after battle of Long Island, 48-51 ; size in December, 
1776, 54; in 1777, 55; in 1778, 58; in 1779, 62; in 1780, 65; 
described by Arnold, 66-67; i^i 1781, 67-68; in 1782, 70; con- 
dition in 1777, loo-ioi ; in motion, 194; day's march, 195; 
number engaged, 241-242 

Cooking, 78 ; need of wood, 86 ; inspection, 86 

Coronation day, 165 

Countersign, 145 

Courage of privates, 231-232 

Cowardice of some officers, 135 

Crimes of privates, 230 

Crops, unharvested, 47 

Cruelty suppressed, 209 

Day's march, 195 

Death penalty, 1 70-1 71 

Deer in camp, 200 

Democracy and discipline, 128-131 

Desertion, one cause of, 48; to re-enlist for bounties, 53; to get 

clothes, 54; chiefly those of foreign birth, 58; of a sentinel, 148; 

excessive, 172; caused by homesickness, 181 
Diaries, 222 
Discipline, 127-130; at the South, 130; lack of, 136 

[252] 



Index 

Disease, 177; variety of, 182 
Dishonesty of officers, 135 
'"^ogs, eaten, 84 
Draft, fine imposed for refusing, 50, 62 
Drinking, excessive, 228-229 
Driver or snapper, 120 
Dunmore, Lord, his proclamation freeing servants and slaves, 22 

Earth-works. See Field-works 

Enlistment, term of, 28-33; checked, 34; influences to, 39; ex- 
cessive, 46, 47 ; those exempt, 50 ; short term of, 62 ; motives 
controlling, 234-235 

Epithets, 222, 238 

Establishment, old, 27 

Exchange of prisoners, 192-193 

Field-works, 152, 233; Adams's opinion, 234 

Firearms, scarcity of, 113-I14; imported, 115; old-time, 119; acci- 
dents in using, 11 2-1 13 

Firelock, and powder, 105 et seq.; weakness of firelock, 108, in ; 
loading, 108, no 

Firing, 122-123 

Fisher, Elijah, his experiences at the close of the war, 246-248 

Flag of truce fired upon, 149 

Flintlock. See Firelock 

Flints, II9-120; life of, 120 

Food, how obtained, 89. See also Ration 

Food, price of, 34-36 

Foraging, 209 

Foreigners as deserters, 58 

Fourth of July, 165 

Freneau, Philip, in a prison-ship, 188 

Fudg fairyouwell my friends, 168 

Gano, Rev. John, 1 59-161 

Gantlet, 175 

Gates, Horatio, as seen by a private, 244 

" General," in military music, 196 

George III., statue of lead, 115 

Goddard, John, carries stores to Concord, 10 

Grass guard, 151 

[ 253 ] 



Index 

Green, John Richard, his opinion of Washington, 71 
Guard duty, 145-151 
Gun-factories, 107 
Gunsmiths, 115 

Hair, how dressed, 237 

Handbills, 163 

Hardships, 35, 47; at Ticonderoga, 51 ; at Peekskill, 99; on guard, 
147; in prisons, 184; unreliable reports of, 185; on Quebec 
expedition, 202 ; in storms, 206 ; at Valley Forge, 240 ; effect on 
health, 241 ; at the close of the war, 246-248 

Health improved by army life, 241 

Holidays, 164-167 

Homesickness, 181 

Hospitals, 177-186; British, 184 

Hunter, hospital-ship, 188 

Hunting shirt, 91 

Huts at Cambridge and Valley Forge, 74-76 

Illness, cause of, 182; effect on enlistments, 183 

Improvident soldiers, 85 

Independence of thought, 239 

Indian allies, 215 

Indian country seen in Sullivan's expedition, 196-200 

Industries quickened, 97 

Ineffective number, 54, 58 

Jersey, prison-ship, 187 

King's birthday, 164 

Laurens, John, desires to enlist negroes, 23 

Lead, how obtained, 115 

Lee, Charles, on the privates, 133 

Leggings, 93 

Lexington, battle of, 10-12 ; events after the battle, 13 ; carrying the 

news, 16-18 
" Lobsters," 222 
Long-faces, 222 

Manual of exercise, 108-111 
Marching, 195 et seq. 

[254] 



Index 

Market in camp, 8i 

Marksmanship, 123; why ridiculed, 137 

Material needs, 73 et seq. 

Matrosses, 51 

May day, observance of, 167 

Meat, harmful without vegetables, 84 ; to be boiled, not fried, 86 ; in 
1777-78, 87 

Medicine recommended, 180 

Merit, signs of, 96 

Military stores in Massachusetts in 1775, 105 

Militia, organized in 1774, 8 ; frequent use of, 32 ; and regulars, 122 ; 
as soldiers, 232 ; Washington's opinion of, 233 
-NMilk, 81, 82 

Minutemen, 8 

Money, effect on the privates, 227 

Musicians and music, 155-156 

Musket, form recommended, 107; value of, 107 

Mutiny, of Pennsylvania line, 137-141 ; at Yorktown, 141 
■^ 

Negroes, in the colonies, 5 ; status in the army, 20-24 

Neutrals in the South, 212 

News, effect of, 163 

Norfolk discipline, 109 

Oath in 1775, 26 

Occupations in camp, 152, 156 

Officers, and privates, 125 et seq. ; as barbers, 128; distinction in 
pay, 130; some inferior, 132; at Bunker Hill, 132; Charles 
Lee's opinion of, 134; Greene's views, 134; resign at Valley 
Forge, 135; dishonest, 135; as seen by privates, 244-245 

Old countrymen, 148 

Osnaburgs, 97 

Overalls, 94 

Panic, 206, 232 

Parade, 237 

Parole and countersign, 145 

Pay of officer and private, 130 

Pennsylvania line, mutiny of, 137-141 

Pension legislation, 245 

[ 255 ] 



Index 

Pensioners, 242 

Percy, Earl, his opinion of the militia, g, 233 

Physical condition of privates, 236 

Pickering, Timothy, his Easy Plan, 109-110 

Pickets, 144-151; to be native born, 148; cruelly treated, 149-150 
">v Pikes, advocated by Franklin, 112 

Plundering, 208-210 

Powder, and its production, I16-119 

Powder-horns, 121 

Preparation for war, 7-10 

Prices, advance of, 34, 35 ; and enlistment, 235 

Prisoners, not to be enlisted, 39 ; treatment of, by England, igi ; 
how to get free, 192 ; effect of exchange, 192 

Prisons in England, 189-191 

Prison-ships, 186 et seq. ; to be described for children by Franklin, 
189 

Private property, protection of, 208 

Private soldier, attitude toward his company, 25 ; could not be ar- 
rested for debt, 28 ; bravery, 40 ; as seen by those in command, 
125-126; and company officers, 127-131 ; Charles Lee's opin- 
ion, 133; language and education, 219 et seq.; his horizon lim- 
ited, 224 

Privateering, rage for, 45 ; sometimes a benefit, 46 

Prosperity in war time, 36 

Protection for militia, 233 

Provisions, prices of, 82; for 30,000 men, 88 

Punishments, 169-176; by whom inflicted, 174 

Putnam, Colonel, 129 

Quarter-guards, 121 

Quebec expedition, scarcity of meat, 84 ; hardships, 202 

Rank, 129-131 

Ration, June, 1775, 78; in August, 1775, 79; in 1778, 80; in 1898, 

80; value, 81 
Recruiting officers, 37 

Recruits, training of, T,^ ; obtaining, 38, 62, 63 
Religious interest, 230 
Religious life, 158-162 
Rhode Island troops, ragged, 99 

[256] 



Index 

Rifle dress, 91-92 

Riflemen, companies raised, 19 ' 

Rounds carried, 121 

Rum, for illness, 177 ; bad eff'ect of, 227 

Running ball, 116 

Rush, Dr. Benjamin, on the birth-rate. 36; on army life, 241 

Rutledge, John, order to protect privates, 142 

St. Patrick's day, observance of, 167 

Saltpetre, 11 7-1 19 

Scalping, 216-217 

Shaving, 143; of private by an officer, 128 

Shells in camp, 169 

Shoes cut to pieces by roads, 205 

" Sixty-fourth," no 

Slaves in the army, 20-24 

Small-pox, effect of, 182 

Smith, Francis, at Lexington, 10 

Snapper or driver, 120 

Spears, advocated, 112 

Speech of the private, 220-222 

Steuben, Baron, :},t,, 34; his manual, ill 

Stones, boiled, 85 

Suffolk county convention, b 

Sullivan, John, expedition against the Six Nations, 64, 196-200 

Sunday services, 158-162 

Survivors, last, 243; hardships, 246-248 

SuttlingjDooth, 81 

Swearing, 230 

Tents in 1775, 74 

Theft, 210 

Thrift, 156 

Ticklenburgs, 97 

Ticonderoga, hardships at, 51 

Tories, treatment of, by soldiers, 2II ; by British, 212; in England, 

213; at Bennington, 214 
Trades in camp, 156 
Training recruits, ^t, 
"Troop," military music, 196 

[257] 



Index 

Trousers or overalls, 94 
Two months' walk, 62 

Uniforms, 89 et seq. ; in 1779, 96; red refused by troops, 103 

Valley Forge as a camp, 75-77 

Vegetables, scarcity, 82 ; in Sullivan's expedition, 82 ; need of, 83 

Veterans, life of, 246-248 

Vinegar, 83-84 

Wagon-master, 129 

Waldo, Dr. A., describes the private, 240 

War, burdens of, 37 

Washington, George, his opinion of New England troops, 41 ; de- 
scribed by J. R. Green, 71 ; advice for firing, 122 ; and the pri- 
vate, 125 ; story of his throwing a stone, 208 ; and militia, 233 ; 
as seen by privates, 244-245 

Watch coats, 95 

Weaving, 97 

Whipping, 170; number of lashes, 174 

Whitemarsh, camp at, 77 

Wind from a ball, 151 

Wives and children of soldiers, 35 

Wood, need of, for cooking, 86 

Wooden horse, 176 



[258] 



OCT 1 1912 



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